Teraco, a Digital Realty Company, announced it would start building a 120 Megawatts (MW) solar plant.
This is after the company secured its first grid capacity allocation from Eskom to start the construction of its Free-State based facility.
The grid capacity allocation from Eskom enables Teraco to connect its planned 120MW solar facility to the national electrical grid.
The power generated will be wheeled across Eskom and municipal power networks to Teraco’s facilities across South Africa.
Jan Hnizdo, CEO at Teraco, said “this allocation is a significant step towards meeting our renewable energy ambitions and those of our clients. It is also only the first phase of our longer-term renewable energy commitment. We have been on a long journey over the last few years to obtain these approvals, and our aim now is to execute quickly on the opportunity. “
Once completed, the 120MW solar PV plant is expected to yield more than 338 000MW per hour annually.
Bryce Allan, Head of Sustainability at Teraco, said the plant is part of a plan to achieve 100% clean energy goal.
“In addition to this project, over the past two years, Teraco has deployed approximately 6MW of roof-top solar integrated into its facilities, and this is to be increased to 10MW as new facilities become operational” said Allan.
Teraco has partnered with JUWI Renewable Energies South Africa and Subsolar to develop the 120MW solar PV plant, with JUWI appointed to design and manage the procurement, construction, and commissioning.
Wheeling renewable energy across electrical grids enables power to be moved from a renewable energy producer in outlying areas via existing transmission and distribution systems to end-users located in urban areas. It also enables the deployment of renewable energy projects to areas with high energy yield to maximise renewable energy generation potential.
Read more about electricity wheeling in the Western Cape : https://earthnews365-store.sellfy.store/p/earthnews365-november-2023-bqmida/