Atlantis Solar PV Project

Atlantis solar PV Project

The City of Cape Town awarded a tender for the Atlantis solar PV Project, the City’s first grid-connected 7MW solar plant.

 

If all goes according to plan, construction should start in August this year, with completion within 12 months. The facility forms part of the City’s plan to end loadshedding over time.

‘The idea is to potentially have a number of similar plants being rolled out across the metro in the years to come,’ it said in a statement. The tender was awarded to the Lesedi Technoserve Consortium for the engineering, procurement and construction of the facility.

 

The City’s Mayco member for energy, councillor Beverley van Rheenen, says the project is currently in the detailed design phase and the first power to the grid is expected towards the end of 2025.

‘The plant will be connected to the City’s electrical network at a nearby main substation and will feed the 7MW of generated electricity directly into the grid. It is the first utility-scale renewable energy project in Cape Town and will be owned and operated by the City,’ she adds.

‘Apart from achieving our overarching vision of reducing the dependency on Eskom through our various programmes, and of enabling cleaner, more affordable sources of energy, we are also extremely focused on boosting our local economy to drive job creation.’ ‘Our Atlantis project will thus have significant benefits for the economy and job creation, increasing green jobs across various skill levels. A full stakeholder engagement process will get underway and we thank our community, partners and stakeholders for all their support.’ The Atlantis PV Project is an initiative of the City’s Energy Strategy 2050 vision of ‘Energy security for a prosperous Cape Town’. It will be ‘one of many’ interventions to help generate affordable, reliable electricity, the City says, as future increases in Eskom prices might not be financially sustainable. The City says the project will also help offset electricity consumption in municipal buildings by generating renewable energy, thereby reducing the carbon emissions associated with the City’s operations. -www.capetownetc.com