City Of Cape Town government has awarded the contract to build its first grid-connected solar plant to the local Lesedi Technoserve Consortium.

The 7MW Atlantis photovoltaic (PV) project is currently in the detailed design phase. Construction is planned to start in August and be completed within 12 months. The transmission of first power into the grid is expected towards the end of 2025.

Cape Town city currently purchases most of its electricity from national utility Eskom, but the government says this may not be financially sustainable with power purchase price escalations expected in the future.

The plant is part of the city government’s interventions to achieve its Energy Strategy 2050 vision published in late 2023, which includes commitments to harness new energy supply, operate a future-fit utility and optimise energy use. Several similar plants will be rolled out across the city in the coming years, with the 2050 vision targeting 650MW of independent power to be added over a five-year period.

The Atlantis facility will also contribute towards achieving the city's goal of net-zero carbon municipal buildings by 2030.

“[Atlantis] is the first utility-scale renewable energy project in Cape Town and will be owned and operated by the city,” said mayoral committee member for energy Beverley van Reenen in late April.

“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.

Lesedi Technoserve Consortium is a joint venture of engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) company Lesedi and electrical engineering firm Technoserve.

Previously in April, the City of Cape Town government announced plans to invest more than Rand 4 billion (US$215.3 million) in electricity grid upgrades and maintenance over three years. This is intended to ensure the grid can cope with a dynamic, decentralised energy future as Cape Town aims to be the first city in South Africa to end load-shedding.

“Any city hoping to end load-shedding simply must invest heavily in upgrading its electricity grid infrastructure,” said Van Reenen. “In the coming years, we will go from an Eskom monopoly to literally thousands of different power sellers, big and small, including people selling their excess solar to the city, commercial entities selling and wheeling electricity to each other, as well as big independent power producers feeding electricity into the grid at various points.”

The local Solar MD is building a dedicated gigawatt lithium-ion battery energy storage manufacturing plant in Cape Town. A groundbreaking ceremony for the project was held in August 2023. The work involves building a 12,500-square-metre light industrial site with a 10,250-square-metre warehouse, 2,200 square metres of office space and a 250-square-metre showroom.

Solar MD gigawatt battery storage plant in Cape TownSource: Solar MD

The construction work is being undertaken by the local Isipani Construction and the project is scheduled for completion in May. It is being managed by local developer Atterbury Property.