Lichtenburg renewable energy project creates hundreds of jobs with R120m already spent
SOUTH African-owned Sola was in the phase of what is said to be Africa’s largest renewable energy project under a corporate power purchase agreement (PPA), in Lichtenburg, North-West, the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition said in a statement this week.
The project, which is being built by Sola Build and Wilson Bayly Holmes- Ovcon under a joint venture, is in the construction phase, and is expected to begin operations in the first quarter of 2024.
Katherine Persson, the head of Sola Assets, said that so far, the construction phase had provided employment to 887 unskilled and 38 skilled workers directly and through small, medium and micro enterprises.
Sola announced the R3.8 billion investment in the project at the fifth South African Investment Conference that was hosted by President Cyril Ramaphosa in Johannesburg in April.
Approximately 430 hectares is being used to construct the solar PV power plant which will generate about 580 gigawatt hours a year of clean, renewable electricity, equivalent to the annual consumption of more than 40 000 households each year. The project will generate renewable energy to be sold to Tronox Mineral Sands under a corporate PPA. The
electricity will be delivered to Tronox’s facilities via wheeling over the national electricity grid.
Persson said that close to R120 million had been spent in Lichtenburg and the surrounding areas in relation to the project.
Five of Tronox’s sites in the Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal will receive energy from the solar PV project, which will be built in the North West’s Ditsobotla Local Municipality. Eskom’s grid will be used to transport the power.