South Africa's Solar Energy Atlas Supports 9,600-Megawatt Build Program

Written by Richard Finlayson, Senior International Editor for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--South African Weather Services is constructing 12 solar radiation stations across the country to provide information for South Africa's solar energy atlas, which is under development to advance increasingly popular solar photovoltaic (PV) and solar thermal projects. Six of the solar radiation stations already are operational.

Information from the stations will be combined with data gathered from private stations, as well as satellite data collected by the South African National Space Agency, to compile the solar atlas.

At the opening of Globeleq's (London, England) $200 million, 50-megawatt (MW) Droogfontein solar PV plant, sited near Kimberley in the Northern Cape province, South Africa Deputy Science and Technology Minister Michael Masutha said that the government was expecting 5,000 MW to be installed in a solar corridor from Upington to De Aar. The Northern Cape province has some of the highest irradiation values in the world.

The information in the atlas will be used to guide the spatial distribution of solar energy farms, including those of independent power producers (IPPs). The weather service will use data obtained through the atlas process to provide credible data to international bodies, such as the World Climate Research Program's Baseline Surface Radiation Network, and the Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment. Government departments also are offering funding support to a range of institutions of higher learning, to support research and development in both solar PV and concentrating solar power (CSP).

The deputy minister said that the PV technology value chain had been analyzed and, despite fierce price competition in solar PV, South Africa could still play a role in more strategic parts of the value chain. In CSP, the focus is on the development of systems, ranging from components to plants, including hardware and software.

As South Africa's integrated resource plan is being updated, the government sees about 9,600 MW of new solar capacity in the energy mix by 2030, with 8,400 MW from solar PV and 1,200 MW from CSP.

For related information, see November 7, 2013, article - South Africa's Renewables Program Approves Additional 1,475 Megawatts in Projects.

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