The 100 MW Redstone Solar Thermal Power project, developed by US utility-scale power projects facilitator SolarReserve and Saudi Arabia-based water and power project facilitator Acwa Power, will feature SolarReserve’s one-of-a-kind molten salt energy storage technology in a tower configuration.
With 12 hours of full-load energy storage, this technology has the capability to support South Africa’s energy demand day and night, enabling SolarReserve to reliably deliver a stable electricity supply to more than 200 000 homes during peak demand periods.
Fuelled entirely by the sun, with no backup fuel required, the project also features dry cooling of the power generation cycle as an important element that will reduce water use.
The project technology will be based on SolarReserve’s successful Crescent Dunes project, in Las Vegas, which is complete and currently in the final commissioning stage.
“The Redstone project marks an important solar power technology advancement in solar power for South Africa,” says SolarReserve CEO Kevin Smith, adding that, owing to the plant’s fully integrated thermal energy storage, Redstone will provide dispatchable power on demand, just like conventional coal, oil, nuclear or natural gas-fired power plants, but without the harmful emissions, hazardous materials and additional fuel cost.
About the Redstone Solar Thermal Power Project
The Redstone project will form part of the world’s first combined concentrated solar power (CSP) and photovoltaic (PV) solar park, which will have a total of 271 MW of generating capacity.
The project, which is scheduled to achieve financial closure later this year and start operations in early 2018, will be located in Postmasburg, near Kimberley, in the Northern Cape, adjacent to the 75 MW Lesedi Solar Power project and the 96 MW Jasper PV Solar Power project.
The Department of Energy (DoE) awarded preferred bidder status to a consortium led by SolarReserve for the Redstone Solar Thermal Power project.
The project was developed in response to the DoE’s Round 3 CSP renewable-energy independent power producer procurement programme (REIPPPP).
The Redstone Solar Thermal Power project has also offered the lowest tariff bid to date for any CSP project in the country.
SolarReserve will be attending the Africa Energy Indaba, held from February 17 to 18, at the Sandton Convention Centre, Johannesburg.