Soitec Builds First Commercial Solar Plant in South Africa

The President of South Africa inaugurated the first 500 kW commercial concentrator photovoltaic (CPV) power plant developed by Soitec in December. The plant is a part of the COP17 flagship project. A number of dignitaries had attended the inaugural function.

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The plant is situated at Hazelmare close to Durban. Soitec had developed the plant in collaboration with the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) and the eThenwini Municipality. The construction was completed within a month and was developed in order to reiterate South Africa’s environmental commitment towards lowering the carbon footprint and expanding renewable energy during COP17. The construction of the plant was done by Group Five.

The President applauded the developmental effort by Soitec and their commitment towards bringing about environmental reforms. The Minister of Energy added that the project will be contributing towards the Integrated Resource Plan 2010, which is responsible for supplying 42% of the renewable energy by the year 2030. The project is the first step towards building a line of renewable energy projects in the future. The CPV is connected to the power grid so that the generated power adds to the power supply to the ICCC, where the UNFCCC COP 17 is being hosted. The plant consists of 32 two-axis tracking systems that make sure that the sunlight is focussed on the solar cells with high precision all through the day. The solar power system provides constant output to the power grid. The use of Fresnel Lens ensures that that the sunlight factor remains at 500 constantly, thereby providing a module efficiency of 30%.