Less than a year after construction began, what has been described as South Africa’s largest wheeling project has been commissioned.

A collaboration between the SOLA Group and Tronox Mineral Sands, the two new solar plants at Lichtenburg, in the North West province, have a combined capacity of 200 MW, with the construction project injecting in the region of ZAR200 million in the local economy.

The solar power will be wheeled from Lichtenburg to Tronox mines in KwaZulu-Natal and Western Cape through a wheeling agreement with Eskom’s distribution network, reports Mining Review.

The solar PV plants comprise more 390 073 bifacial solar modules on single-axis trackers, covering a total area of 430 hectares and generating 593 721 MWh of renewable energy annually. The solar plants will help to avoid more than 400 000 tons of carbon emissions a year.

23 July 2024
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