Renewable energy project specialist juwi Renewable Energies, which has participated in five South African utility-scale solar photovoltaic (PV) projects with a combined capacity of more than 120 MW, reports that it is gearing up to aggressively pursue embedded solar generation opportunities that are set to arise in the country’s commercial and industrial sectors.

MD Greg Austin stresses that it will continue to pursue utility-scale solar and wind prospects under the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP), highlighting that it is about to proceed with the construction of the country’s largest solar PV development, secured by its partners during the third bid window under the REIPPPP.

In fact, he reports that site work will begin in April on the 86.2 MW Mulilo Sonnedix Prieska PV project, which reached financial close in December.

The giant Northern Cape facility is the latest solar PV development to be pursued by juwi Renewable Energies in partnership with independent power producers (IPPs) in South Africa. The others are the 5.9 MW Swartland facility, the Aries and Konkoonsies plants, which have capacities of 10.7 MW apiece, and the 7 MW RustMo1 project.

But the Germany domiciled group, which has built and operates some 3 000 MW of solar and wind capacity across the world, plans to diversify into the commercial and industrial sectors, where it expects to be in a position to develop more than 20 MW of embedded solar PV capacity over the coming two years.

Business development manager Matthew Turner reports that it is already in advanced negotiations with a mining group for a 1 MW free-field plant, as well as with a government department for a single-axis-tracker installation.

It is also targeting rooftop solar opportunities of between 0.3 MW and 1 MW with a range of commercial and industrial customers and has an offering that caters for both companies that are prepared to invest directly in the systems and those that keep such developments off their balance sheets. The company will not invest directly in the case of off-balance-sheet deals, but will instead partner with IPPs that are keen to play that role.

The initial approach will be to align the installations to a company’s internal demand, owing to the current uncertainties and difficulties associated with either seeking a licence or securing an appropriate tariff to feed electricity into the grid.

However, Turner indicates that it could, in future, pursue larger grid-connected solutions, particularly should the National Energy Regulator of South Africa’s (Nersa’s) framework for embedded solar generators improve the prospects for such projects.

Nersa has released a consultation paper titled ‘Small-Scale Embedded Generation: Regulator Rules’ to guide the public consultations on the matter and a public hearing is set down for April 10. The intention is for the new regulatory framework to be in place by the end of May.