Karoo town loses shine

FOUR solar farms are being built on the outskirts of De Aar in the Northern Cape to feed into Eskom’s national grid.

The men accused of gangraping the teenage girl were Italian engineers employed by Moncada Energy Group, which is contracted to supply and install thin film panels on the De Aar Solar Farm, one of the projects.

It is an R18-billion project run by Solar Capital, which was selected under South Africa’s Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Programme to provide solar energy.

The De Aar Solar Farm is being built on about 2 300ha of farmland, situated about 10km from the town.

Once completed, the farm’s 4 000 panels are expected to generate 75MW — enough electricity to power about 14 000 homes a year. —