SunEdison, Inc., the world's largest renewable energy development company, today announced it has been awarded an 86 megawatts (MW) DC solar photovoltaic project in South Africa during the fourth bid round of the Renewable Energy IPP Procurement Program organized by South Africa's Department of Energy. The 86 MW award represents 20% of the total solar allocated to preferred bidders in this round.
The Droogfontein 2 solar power plant will be located 20 km south of Kimberly in the Northern Cape Province and is expected to produce enough energy to power the equivalent of 45,000 South African homes. Eskom, the South African national utility, will purchase the solar energy under a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA).
"Solar is a perfect solution to meet South Africa's growing energy needs," stated Enrique Collado, SunEdison General Manager for Africa. "Solar energy is cost competitive with fossil fuel energy, solar power plants can be brought on-line far more quickly than conventional power plants, and solar power plants are easily scalable, making them the perfect solution to help alleviate South Africa's constrained power system. South Africa is one of the most attractive solar markets in the world, and we look forward to continuing to work with the Department of Energy in future rounds of the Renewable Energy IPP procurement program, which is expected to deliver an incremental 6.3 gigawatts of projects."
"SunEdison is committed to the local community," continued Mr. Collado. "Through enterprise development, skills creation, and local procurement, we're making sure that local people directly benefit from our projects."
SunEdison entered the South African market in 2011 and has already developed and installed 130 MW of utility scale solar power. With the addition of the Droogfontein 2 solar power plant, SunEdison becomes one of the leading solar energy providers in South Africa. Operation and maintenance of the power plant will be performed by SunEdison Services, which provides global 24/7 asset management, monitoring and reporting services. SunEdison intends to offer the completed project to the emerging markets-focused yieldco that SunEdison previously announced it plans to form.
Source: http://www.sunedison.com