Morocco is home to Africa’s largest solar project Noor whereas South Africa hosts eight of the ten largest solar plants in Africa. Power-technology lists Africa’s biggest operational solar projects by installed capacity.
Noor Solar Complex — 510MW
The 500MW Noor Solar Complex is the planet’s biggest concentrated solar power plant project. Image courtesy of SENER group.
The Noor Solar Complex is a 500MW solar park located in the municipality of Ouarzazate in the Agadir district of Morocco. It is the biggest concentrated solar energy plant project on the planet.
The location of the job offers 2,635kWh/m² of sunlight a year, which is thought of as one of the highest on earth. The solar park incorporates multiple utility-scale solar power plants equipped with various solar technologies.
The Noor solar park includes Noor I, Noor II and Noor III projects, which occupy a place of 2,500ha. The 3 power plants were grid linked by 2018. The Noor Solar Sophisticated offsets 760,000t of CO2 emissions a year.
Solar Capital De Aar Project — 175MW
The 175MW De Aar solar project is situated in the Northern Cape, South Africa.
The project encompasses two phases (De Aar 1 plus De Aar 3) using a combined installed capacity of 175MW.
De Aar 1 was commissioned in 2014 and became operational in 2016. The job was developed beneath the South African Government’s Renewable Energy Independent Power Producers Procurement Programme (REIPPPP).
The De Aar solar job provides green electricity to power around 100,000 South African houses, which makes it the largest solar farm in the nation.
The 165.5MW Benban photovoltaic (PV) solar park is found in the Aswan Province in Benban, Egypt. The solar park is fed upwards of three solar energy plants with an individual set up capability of 67.5MW, 70MW and 28MW, respectively.
The 165.5MW job was constructed by CHINT Solar by August 2018. ACWA Power is the developer, financier and operator of the solar park, which entailed an investment of $190m.
The Benban PV solar park creates enough power to power 80,000 homes while offsetting approximately 156,000t of CO2 per year.
KaXu Solar One — 100MW
KaXu Solar One provides clean energy to 80,000 South African families a year.
It is the first commercially used solar thermal electric power plant in South Africa.
Commissioned in March 2015, the public-private partnership (PPP) project supplies sustainable power to South Africa’s power utility Eskom, under a 20-year power purchase arrangement. Abengoa holds a 51% stake in the project while the IDC and KaXu Community Trust respectively own 29% and 20 percent.
The KaXu Solar One power plant is capable of providing clean and green power to approximately 80,000 South African families.
Xina Solar One — 100MW
Xina Solar One creates about 400GWh of green energy a year. Picture courtesy of Sintemar.
Xina Solar One is situated in Pofadder, South Africa and also a 100MW concentrated solar power (CSP) plant constructed by Abengoa with a $880m investment. The plant commenced its commercial operations in September 2017.
The CSP plant employs parabolic trough technology and offers 5.5 hours of renewable energy storage. The parabolic trough collector of the plant is touted to be the world’s largest commercial CSP job to date.
The plant is expected to create approximately 400GWh of energy, which is sufficient to power 95,000 houses while eliminating 348,000t of CO2 emissions per annum.
Flange-1 CSP Plant — 100MW
The industrial operations of Ilanga-1 CSP plant started in November 2018. Picture courtesy of SENER group.
SENER and its partners Emvelo and Cobra finished the commissioning and testing of the 100MW Ilanga-1 CSP plant in November 2018. Situated in Karoshoek from the Northern Cape province of South Africa, the plant is owned by Karoshoek Solar One (RF) Proprietary.
The Ilanga-1 CSP plant comprises 266 SENERtrough® loops. The molten salt system installed in the plant ensures five hours of renewable energy storage to generate thermal energy from the absence of solar power.
The solar energy plant is anticipated to supply clean energy to approximately 100,000 South African homes while annually cutting 90,000t of CO2 emissions over 20 decades.
Kathu Solar Park — 100MW
The 100MW Kathu Solar Park began commercial operations in January 2019.
The Kathu Solar Park (KSP) is a 100MW CSP project in Kathu from the state of Northern Cape, South Africa. The solar park began commercial operations in January 2019.
The KSP job is owned by Engie, SIOC Community Development Trust, the Public Investment Corporation, the Lereko Metier REIPPP Fund Trust, Investec Bank and the Kathu LCT Trust.
The greenfield project incorporates parabolic trough and molten salt storage technology, ensuring 4.5 hours of thermal energy storage. It provides 179,000 households in South Africa during their peak demand interval.
Jasper Solar Power Project — 96MW
Jasper solar energy project supplies power to 80,000 homes in South Africa.
With a 96MW-DC installed capacity, Jasper is one of the most significant solar power projects in Continental Africa. The solar plant is located in Postmasburg in the Northern Cape Province in South Africa.
The solar energy project was designed by SolarReserve and its consortium partners Kensani and Intikon Energy. Building on the Jasper plant started in October 2013, while the project became fully operational in October 2014.
Jasper generates approximately 180GWh of renewable energy annually, which is sufficient to power 80,000 homes in South Africa.
The solar plant began commercial operations in July 2016.
This project was developed by Mulilo Renewable Project Developments (Pty) in partnership with Mulilo Renewable Energy and Ixowave Women in Power, for Mulilo Sonnedix Prieska PV (Pty).
The Mulilo-Sonnedix-Prieska PV project supplies enough power to 40,000 South African households through the Eskom grid, during its lifetime of 20 decades.
Kalkbult Solar Plant — 75MW
The 75MW Kalkbult solar PV plant is located near Petrusville from the Northern Cape Province, South Africa. Developed by Scatec Solar, the plant was officially inaugurated in November 2013.
Building of this Kalkbult solar plant began at November 2012 and the centre was grid-connected at September 2013. The PV plant comprises 312,000 solar panels spread across 105ha of land.
The Kalkbult plant creates 135GWh of renewable energy per year, which is enough to nourish 33,000 households. It is going to also counter 115,000t of greenhouse gas emissions annually.
