On December 7th, 2011 South Africa's Department of Energy (DoE) announced preferred bidders to develop 632 MW of solar photovoltaic (PV) and 150 MW of concentrating solar power (CSP) plants as the first round of its Renewable Energy Independent Procurement Program.

Included in the 632 MW of PV, the DoE selected Soitec SA (Bernin, France) to build a 36MW concentrating photovoltaic (CPV) Plant in Touwsrivier in South Africa's Western Cape region. The DoE also chose Abengoa SA (Seville, Spain) to develop all 150 MW of CSP in two projects, a 50 MW solar power tower project and a 100 MW parabolic trough plant.

"Being awarded these two new projects is the best proof of the ongoing advances in CSP technology as a result of the important investments in R&D programs that the sector and specifically Abengoa are making," stated Abengoa CEO Manuel Sanchez Ortega.

"CSP will play a key role in the 21st century energy mix as it is clean, dispatchable, renewable and able to be stored."

Khi Solar One to be Abengoa's first solar tower outside of Spain

The DoE announced its "preferred bidders" at the COP17 United Nations Climate Change Conference, which is currently underway in Durban, South Africa.

Among the projects approved were Abengoa's 50MW Khi Solar One plant, which will use a solar tower design, and 100MW KaXu Solar One plant, which will use a parabolic trough design. Abengoa will own 51% of each project, with the remaining 49% to be held by the state-owned Industrial Development Corporation (Johannesburg, South Africa).

Khi Solar One will be Abengoa's third commercial solar tower CSP plant and the first that it will build outside of Spain. Abengoa states that the plant is more efficient than previous designs and uses higher temperatures during the generation process.

There are currently no operational commercial-scale CSP plants in South Africa, and while others have been planned, the Abengoa plants could be the first to be built in the nation.

Schneider Electric to provide EPC, O&M services for CPV plant

Soitec has partnered with Schneider Electric SA (Rueil-Malmaison, France) on the Touwsrivier CPV project. Soitec will supply its Concentrix CPV systems for the plant, while Schneider Electric will provide engineering procurement and construction (EPC), as well as operations and maintenance (O&M) services.

Soitec has already installed a pilot CPV plant at the Aquila Private Game Reserve near Touwsrivier.

Mainstream Renewable Power to build two 48.2 MW PV plants

In addition to the CSP and CPV plants, a consortium led by Mainstream Mainstream Renewable Power South Africa (Johannesburg) was selected to build two 48.2 MW PV plants by 2014.

The DoE selected Mainstream Renewable Power and partner Genesis Eco-Energy Pty Ltd. (Cape Town, South Africa) to build the De Aar PV plant and the Droogtontein PV plant, as well as a 138MW wind plant.

Together, these three plants represent an investment of USD 620 million. Mainstream Energy expects to reach financial close by June 2012, and commence construction of the plants shortly thereafter.

2011-12-08| Courtesy: South African Department of Energy; Image: Abengoa SA | solarserver.com © Heindl Server GmbH

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