Cape Town has become the first metro in South Africa to begin construction on its own solar PV plant, marking a key step in diversifying its energy sources and preparing for the future.

Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis on Monday (7 October), broke ground at the site of the City’s 7MW to 10MW solar photovoltaic (PV) plant in Atlantis.

“Construction on this R200 million project is expected to take about a year, after which we’ll connect the Atlantis solar plant to a nearby main substation to feed 7MW – and potentially scalable up to 10 MW – directly to the grid.

“The first power is expected to be delivered near the end of 2025. The idea is to potentially have a number of similar plants rolled out across the metro in the years to come,” said the mayor.

“This project forms part of our broader SA-record infrastructure investment of R39.5 billion between July 2024 and June 2027. Thanks to our officials for their dedication and also thanks to the Atlantis community for the great support that has been shown for this project,” said Hill-Lewis.

The City awarded the tender for engineering, procurement and construction of the plant to the Lesedi Technoserve Consortium.

“At the heart of the City’s investment programme is the desire to boost our local Cape Town economy. Our Atlantis project will have significant benefits for the economy and job creation, increasing green jobs across various skill levels. We are working closely with all stakeholders.

“The City currently uses 75% of the tariff income from our electricity sales to buy Eskom power. With the continued Eskom-price escalations, the most recent being an almost 44% hike requested, we simply have to diversify the energy resources.

“These hikes are not sustainable for the City or our residents and we will continue to fight against these exorbitant increases,” said Alderman Limberg.

He said that the Atlantis site will also house the first utility-scale battery storage operation. The Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) Project aims to serve as a pilot project to eventually incorporate energy storage within the City’s network.

“By co-locating the battery system at the Atlantis PV plant, it allows the solar PV and BESS to operate in synergy as a hybrid plant. The BESS project will target a minimum rated power output of 5 MW, and have a useable energy storage capacity of 8 MWh,” Limberg said.