Cape Town invests in PV-plus-storage project to decouple from South African grid’s load-shedding

By Cameron Murray
April 19, 2023
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Reddit
Email
Cape Town at night. South Africa suffers from widespread and frequent grid outages as operator Eskom struggles with reliability. Image: Martie Stewart / Flickr.

A solar-plus-storage project is being planned for the capital of South Africa, as the city looks to move “away from Eskom reliance and towards a load-shedding-free Cape Town”, its Mayor said.

Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis announced that the city would design, build and operate a solar PV plant with battery storage to the tune of 1.2 billion Rand (US$65 million). The Paardevlei project near Somerset West will “yield up to 60MW of renewable energy” although the official size of the either portion was not revealed.

This article requires Premium SubscriptionBasic (FREE) Subscription

Try Premium for just $1

  • Full premium access for the first month at only $1
  • Converts to an annual rate after 30 days unless cancelled
  • Cancel anytime during the trial period

Premium Benefits

  • Expert industry analysis and interviews
  • Digital access to PV Tech Power journal
  • Exclusive event discounts

Or get the full Premium subscription right away

Or continue reading this article for free

A media statement did say that the project would protect the city against one full stage of load shedding from grid operator Eskom. It is part of a 500MW renewable energy procurement from independent power producers (200MW of which will conclude in 2023), the third phase of a broader effort to protect the city from load shedding.

A feasibility study for the project will now be undertaken, to be completed by the end of the year with commissioning of the project planned for August 2026.

To read the full version of this story, visit Energy-Storage.news.

Read Next

Premium
November 27, 2025
Prateek Tare tells PV Tech Premium how Distributed Energy Infrastructure transformed a Superfund site into the Acton PV-plus-storage project.
November 27, 2025
The World Bank will invest in a huge 4GW, 5.12GWh solar-plus-storage complex in Malaysia, which will form part of a pan-Southeast Asian power grid initiative.
November 27, 2025
RWE Clean Energy has commissioned the 200MW Stoneridge Solar PV project in Texas, which is co-located with a 100MW/200MWh BESS.
November 27, 2025
A group of California legislators has called on the state Public Utilities Commission to hold two utilities accountable for delays in connecting solar PV and energy storage capacity to the grid.
November 25, 2025
PowerField has completed construction of seven solar PV projects in the Netherlands with a combined capacity of 170MW.
November 25, 2025
ACME Platinum has signed a PPA with the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) for a 200MW solar-plus storage project in India.

Upcoming Events

Solar Media Events
December 2, 2025
Málaga, Spain
Upcoming Webinars
December 4, 2025
2pm GMT / 3pm CET
Solar Media Events
February 3, 2026
London, UK
Solar Media Events
March 24, 2026
Dallas, Texas
Solar Media Events
April 15, 2026
Milan, Italy