ABO Wind sells 100MW South African PV project

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Reddit
Email
The Droogfontein solar plant in South Africa. Credit: Globeleq.

German renewable energy project developer ABO Wind has sold a 100MW solar PV project in South Africa’s North West Province to an unnamed investor.

The project is the final third of a 300MW solar project cluster, the first 200MW of which ABO Wind sold in 2022. It is fully developed, permitted and ready to build.

This article requires Premium SubscriptionBasic (FREE) Subscription

Unlock unlimited access for 12 whole months of distinctive global analysis

Photovoltaics International is now included.

  • Regular insight and analysis of the industry’s biggest developments
  • In-depth interviews with the industry’s leading figures
  • Unlimited digital access to the PV Tech Power journal catalogue
  • Unlimited digital access to the Photovoltaics International journal catalogue
  • Access to more than 1,000 technical papers
  • Discounts on Solar Media’s portfolio of events, in-person and virtual

Or continue reading this article for free

ABO Wind said that the purchasing investor has signed a  private power purchase agreement (PPA) with an undisclosed offtaker for the power produced at the plant.

“We started working on this project when we first entered the South African market in 2018,” says Rob Invernizzi, general manager of the South African subsidiary of ABO Wind. “Our development team has done an excellent job in fully developing the project, and the finance & sales team has set a sound financial basis and ensured a smooth sale.”

ABO said that its project pipeline in South Africa currently sits at around 4.6GW of renewables generation capacity. It added that the prospective projects will be suitable for both private corporate offtakers – like this 100MW project – and also for the government’s Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Program (REIPPPP), the long-standing power purchasing mechanism.

PV Tech Premium published a piece earlier this year examining the rise of privately-funded solar projects over REIPPPP projects in South Africa off the back of the government’s decision to drastically reduce the domestic content requirements for solar equipment deployed in government-backed developments.

One of the major barriers – and perhaps long-term opportunities – for solar development in South Africa is its unstable grid. Eskom, the national grid operator, regularly has to shut down power to account for the grid’s weaknesses, a practice known as “load-shedding”. As reported by our sister publication Energy-storage.news, in April the Mayor of Cape Town revealed plans for a US$65 million solar-plus-storage project to reduce the city’s reliance on Eskom and end load-shedding in the capital.

A July report from the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) found that South Africa needs to prioritise grid-located energy storage as a solution to load-shedding and reduce reliance on the country’s coal generation fleet.

Of its remaining project pipeline, ABO claimed that “A large proportion of the projects in the pipeline are in areas with excellent resource and good grid capacity and are already bid-compliant for available tender programs.”

25 November 2025
Warsaw, Poland
Large Scale Solar Central and Eastern Europe continues to be the place to leverage a network that has been made over more than 10 years, to build critical partnerships to develop solar projects throughout the region.

Read Next

July 4, 2025
Australian retailer AGL Energy has confirmed its acquisition of South Australia’s Virtual Power Plant (SAVPP) from Tesla.
Premium
July 3, 2025
Meeting the UK’s solar targets will not simply require the installation of new capacity, but investment in grid infrastructure and training.
July 3, 2025
Malaysian engineering and infrastructure giant Gamuda has expanded its presence in the Australian renewables sector by partnering with Tasmanian landowners to build a 1.2GW portfolio, which includes solar PV.
July 2, 2025
Indigenous-led renewable energy company Yindjibarndi Energy Corporation (YEC) has submitted plans for a hybrid wind and solar PV renewable energy project to the Australian government’s Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act.
July 2, 2025
Robotics company Luminous has received AU$4.9 million (US$3.2 million) via Australia’s Solar ScaleUp Challenge to support deploying its ‘LUMI’ technology at utility-scale solar PV power plants.
July 1, 2025
Solar developer ib vogt has sold a 110MW solar PV plant in Spain to international fund NextPower V ESG, which is operated by investment firm NextEnergy Capital (NEC).

Subscribe to Newsletter

Upcoming Events

Media Partners, Solar Media Events
September 2, 2025
Mexico City, Mexico
Solar Media Events
September 16, 2025
Athens, Greece
Solar Media Events
September 22, 2025
Bilbao, Spain
Solar Media Events
September 30, 2025
Seattle, USA
Solar Media Events
October 1, 2025
London, UK