Cape Town’s first municipal-owned, utility-scale solar PV plant in Atlantis has reached a construction milestone with the completed installation of 2 400 of a planned total 12 850 solar panels.
The site was recently inspected by Cape Town’s Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis with Xanthea Limberg, the city’s Mayoral Committee Member for Energy. The mayor said the solar facility is on track to be connected to a nearby main substation by the end of the year with an initial 7 MW capacity. The plant will potentially scale up to 10 MW.
The Atlantis site will operate as a hybrid plant alongside another first for the Cape Town energy sector: the first municipal-owned, 8 MW battery storage facility. Limberg said this is part of broader plans to include more battery storage in the network.
The tender for the project was awarded to the Lesedi Technoserve Consortium for the engineering, procurement and construction of the facility last year. Construction began in August.
The project is part of a broader change in the sustainability of the Cape Town energy industry. “As we source alternative energy to ultimately meet 35% of total demand by 2030; as we scale-up the energy efficiency initiatives already saving ratepayers R350 million per year; as we make it easier for households to go solar and sell us the excess to get cash for power; as we open our grid to energy traders this year; and as we invest R5 billion in grid upgrades over three years to support this decentralised energy future,” Hill-Lewis said.
