Enel starts production at new solar plant in South Africa

"With the completion of Tom Burke, Enel takes its installed capacity in South Africa to nearly 160 MW” said Lamberto Dai Pra’, Enel’s Country Manager in South Africa. “Furthermore, we have more than a gigawatt either recently awarded or already under construction, leveraging on the huge potential offered by this resource-rich country. The South African energy market is on the point of a very interesting evolution and we are developing an increasingly integrated presence in the country. We have coupled our strong renewable generation base with YouPower, a state of the art retail offering combining distributed generation, storage and digital energy services. This is the future of the energy industry and Enel is proud to be leading its roll out to South Africans.”

With an installed capacity of 66 MW, the Tom Burke photovoltaic power plant is capable of generating up to 122 GWh per year. This output is equivalent to the annual consumption needs of around 38 thousand South African households while avoiding the emission of over 111 thousand tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere each year.

The PV power plant is supported by a 20-year power supply agreement with the South African utility Eskom, as part of the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP) tender promoted by the South African Government which awarded the project to the Enel Group.

In South Africa, Enel’s South African renewable subsidiary EGP RSA currently owns and operates, as well as Tom Burke, the recently-completed Paleisheuwel photovoltaic power plant (82.5 MW) situated in the province of the Western Cape and the 10 MW Upington photovoltaic power plant situated in the Northern Cape Province. EGP RSA has a further 364 MW of projects currently under construction: the Adams (82.5 MW) and Pulida (82.5 MW) photovoltaic plants and the Nojoli (88 MW) and Gibson Bay (111 MW) wind farms. Moreover, in 2015 the Enel Group was awarded a further five wind projects for a total capacity of 705 MW following the fourth phase of REIPPPP tender.