Name and Location
KaXu Solar One parabolic trough plant and Khi Solar One concentrate solar power (CSP) projects, Northern Cape, South Africa.
Client
Abengoa Solar South Africa, through its affiliates Abengoa Solar South Africa and Son Revieren, in partnership with the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) and black economic-empowerment partners.
Each plant is owned by a special-purpose vehicle – KaXu by KaXu CSP South Africa and Khi by Khi CSP South Africa.
Project Description
The proposed project entails the construction and operation of two greenfield CSP projects – KaXu and Khi – near the towns of Pofadder and Upington respectively, in South Africa’s Northern Cape province.
KaXu will use a parabolic trough CSP design, while Khi will use a power tower CSP design.
KaXu is envisioned as a 100 MW parabolic trough CSP plant, with an estimated three hours of molten-salt storage, located 40 km from Pofadder.
Parabolic trough technology involves a field of pivoting concave mirrors tracking the sun and concentrating the reflected sunlight onto a closed-circuit network of piping that contains synthetic oil. The heated oil is cycled through a steam-creating generator to drive a 100 MW net capacity turbine. The electricity generated is transmitted through a high-voltage substation to be dispatched to the grid.
KaXu will be located on the farm Scuit Klip 92 and will feed power into State-owned power utility Eskom’s Paulputs substation, located about 1 km from the site.
Khi is a 50 MW steam receiver power tower CSP plant, located 15 km from Upington, which will have a thermal storage capacity of about two hours,. The tower technology captures solar radiation in a field of dual-axis mirrors that track the sun and concentrate the reflected sunlight onto receivers (steam generators), located on top of a single 200 m tower. Superheated steam is piped to a 50 MW net capacity turbine that generates electricity, which is transmitted through a high-voltage substation and dispatched to the grid.
Khi will be located on the farm McTaggarts Camp 453 and will supply power to Eskom’s 132 kV transmission line, located about 5 km from the site.
Infrastructure components for both plants are similar and include a solar field, equipped with mirrors; a power island, or tower, housing a steam generator, steam turbine, a power generator, a transformer, auxiliary boilers and associated equipment, including thermal storage; an overhead power line supplying an on-grid substation; a water abstraction point, a supply pipeline and reservoirs to provide water for steam generation, mirror cleaning and the storage of blowdown water; access roads; and service buildings.
Value
Documentation released following the projects’ selection as preferred bidders of the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Programme indicated costs of R11.4-billion.
Duration
The projects are expected to be operational in 2016.
Latest Developments
The Department of Energy, together with Spanish solar company Abengoa and the IDC, launched the 100 MW, R7.9-billion KaXu CSP park on March 2, 2015.
The plant, which took about two years to build, is 3 km long, 1 km wide and contains 1 200 collectors – each containing ten modules, built from glass mirrors and aluminium. In total, the plant has 336 000 mirrors.
Key Contracts and Suppliers
Abeinsa (construction); and DBSA and EIB (finance).
On Budget and on Time?
Not stated.
Contact Details for Project Information
Abengoa Solar South Africa GM Dr Louis van Heerden, tel +27 12 643 0033, fax +27 12 663 1881 or email Louis.VanHeerden@solar,abengoa.com.
Abeinsa, tel +34 954 93 70 00 or email abeinsa@abengoa.com.
DBSA, Jacky Mashapu, cell + 27 61 037 3890 or email email jackym@dbsa.org.
EIB, Richard Willis, tel +352 62 155 5758 or email Willis@eib.org.