The R400-million construction of the Aurora and Vredendal solar photo- voltaic (PV) power plants, in the Western Cape, is under way and is expected to be completed before the end of the year.
Each plant, with an installed capacity of 10.5 MW-peak will connect to the national power grid, which will ease the strain on power supply.
Construction of the Aurora plant began in July, while construction at Vredendal began in mid-June and is being undertaken by solar power generation company Solairedirect Southern Africa.
The company successfully bid for the projects in the second round of government’s Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP) following its successful partner- ship with investment partners Old Mutual and J&J Group for the funding equity required.
The civil engineering works and security infrastructure are complete at the Vredendal project and the installation of frames on its foundations and 35 000 PV modules has begun, as well as the connection of direct current (dc) cables from the various frames to the dc junction boxes.
There are more than 800 individual structures for each project and new 300 W-peak modules are being used.
State-owned power utility Eskom will connect to the Vredendal plant in March 2014 and to Aurora in June 2014.
Solairedirect Southern Africa MD Ryan Hammond says that the cost of the projects includes the grid connection and other capital costs.
He believes that the projects had the lowest tariffs of any solar PV project bid in the second round and adds that both projects use locally produced solar PV modules from Solairedirect’s sister company, Solairedirect Technologies, situated in Cape Town.
He says that the successful bids in Round 2 dispelled the notion that the projects cannot have a high local content and be cost competitive.
“We are proud to have reached financial close for both projects and have completed the initial stages of the construction phase. We are preparing for the third bid submis- sion of the REIPPPP, which is an opportunity for bidders to submit projects to the Department of Energy under the REIPPPP, and we hope to be successful once again,” Hammond states.
Solairedirect develops such projects, secures debt and equity funding, prepares the bids for submission and, assuming the bid is successful, then builds and operates the solar park.