Huge solar power projects take a shine to the Northern Cape

Nandu Bhula started work as an engineer underground in the mines. Now he is chasing the sun, among those at the forefront of South Africa's renewable energy programme - acclaimed as one of the best and biggest in the world.

Standing amid a quarter of a million gleaming mirrors in the Northern Cape, Bhula, the CEO of Acwa Power Solafrica Bokpoort Concentrated Solar Power, points out its "green" power plant on land that was empty fields just two years ago.

"I believe this plant can revolutionise thinking since it has the potential to show what concentrated solar power can deliver," said Bhula.

At Bokpoort, curved mirrors collect the heat of the sun, which gets stored in molten salt at 400°C. When needed during peak times, the heat is released to make steam and drive turbines - like a traditional power plant, but with zero emissions into the atmosphere.

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The plant, which went live on November 13, can supply the equivalent of 100000 small households. It is the third of its type in South Africa; all three are in the Northern Cape.

Heinrich van Niekerk, a manager at Bokpoort, said: "What we are building now would have been science fiction five years ago, and what we will be building in five years hasn't been invented yet."

To most South Africans, "solar power" means photovoltaic panels mounted on rooftops with battery storage, as can be seen in projects such as the low-income Kuyasa project in Cape Town.

Dozens of photovoltaic projects have been approved for South Africa's renewable energy programme, in addition to the household panels already in use.

Solar-thermal plants such as Bokpoort, which are more expensive to build than photovoltaic projects and sell power at higher tariffs, have the potential to hit the big league, with the added bonus of promoting industrialisation and creating jobs.

Climate change expert and former minister of environmental affairs Valli Moosa, a minority investor through Lereko Metier in Bokpoort, said: "Concentrated solar power is the renewable technology of choice. It has real potential to supply electricity on an industrial scale, and with storage it can supply electricity during peak demand."

block_quotes_start Clean energy was high on the agenda of the COP21 climate change summit in Paris this week block_quotes_end

The Bokpoort plant, 125km southeast of Upington, has the biggest storage capacity in the world for its type of power station, at 9.3 hours. Another solar-thermal plant with tower technology dominates the horizon on the other side of Upington, like a periscope above the red sand.

As South Africa's ageing coal-fired power stations lumber around the energy field struggling to perform, these new players are changing the game.

Renewable energy used to be on the fringes of the action. However, nearly 100 projects - solar, wind, hydro, landfill gas and biomass - have been set up or will be. Green power projects already supply electricity to South African consumers on the grid, reducing load-shedding.

The hub of the solar rush is the Northern Cape, rated one of the best places in the world for sunlight. It has already attracted billions in investment.

Flights to Upington are full of foreign engineers in khaki pants and boots and the occasional Stetson, as contractors flood its one-donkey towns. The menu of a guesthouse in Groblershoop is in English and Spanish.

Even though a project like Bokpoort is small scale at 50MW - compared to South Africa's peak demand of up to 38000MW - Bhula is confident it will prove that renewable energy can be supplied reliably and around the clock.

"There is definitely an appetite to bring in more renewables and quickly," he said.

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"At the moment it is sufficient to build small projects concurrently, take small bites at the [energy deficit] cake and finish quickly, rather than trying to swallow the cake in one go."

Bhula, who used to work for Eskom, still sees a role for fossil-fired and nuclear stations in the energy mix.

"In my view, by the time Medupi is fully operational, the tariffs for [concentrated solar power] will reach parity with the fossil-fired stations."

Eskom is among the players in the mix to construct six more concentrated solar power plants in the Northern Cape.

Saliem Fakir, head of the policy and futures unit at the World Wide Fund for Nature South Africa, said: "South Africa is pioneering some of the largest solar-thermal projects in the world. The renewable energy procurement programme is ... stimulating a whole new economy."

Pancho Ndebele, the local developer behind the concept of a "solar valley" near Upington, said there was one operational job per megawatt of concentrated solar power produced.

"South Africa could become the global leader in manufacturing most of the concentrated solar power components if we seize this opportunity."

For example, about 1000 people have been employed and roughly R1.6-billion invested locally by Bokpoort to date, benefiting seven of the small towns nearby.

Clean energy was high on the agenda of the COP21 climate change summit in Paris this week .

The Department of Energy has a target of 30% renewable energy by 2025 and it looks like these phenomenal independent projects under its direction deserve their place in the sun.