A consortium including Spanish renewable energy conglomerate Acciona and engineering and construction group SENER is to develop the 100mw Kathu solar thermal plant in South Africa.
Kathu, is situated in the Northern Cape Province and the solar plant there is expected to supply electricity to 80,000 homes once it begins operation in 2018.
French electric utility GDF SUEZ leads the consortium, which also includes South African partners.
The consortium has been selected by the South African Department of Energy (DoE) to participate in the renewable energy development program (REIPPP) of the country which is expected to draw investment of more than 500 million euros.
According to a press statement issued by the Spanish companies, the Kathu plant will utilize parabolic troughs made by SENER (SENERtrough-2).
And the plant, which will employ molten salts for heat storage, will have a retention capacity of 4.5 hours.
SENER and ACCIONA will carry out the engineering, construction and commissioning of the entire facility involving local suppliers.
The Kathu project is the second project for both Sener and Acciona in South Africa. They had together worked first on Bokpoort plant (Upington), set to begin operation toward the end of this year.
Independently, SENER has 29 solar plants in its portfolio spread across Spain, USA, South Africa and Morocco. Together the projects represent more than 2,000 MWe and CO2 savings of more than one million tons annually.
ACCIONA, in turn, has built more than 12 solar thermal plants representing 315MW capacity spread over USA and Spain.
It owns a total installed capacity of 8,500 MW, which includes wind, solar and photovoltaic projects.
Acciona is currently working on projects such as Noor 1 in Morocco and Bokpoort in South Africa.
Ajith Kumar S
editor@greentechlead.com