Solar tracker provider Gamechange Solar has secured a deal to supply 500MW of trackers to a group of solar PV projects in southern Africa.
The 500MW capacity is split across four projects; three in South Africa and one in Zimbabwe. Gamechange will supply its Genius Tracker products to the sites, with the Zimbabwe project the first phase of the 185MW Zimplats project in Mashonaland West, Zimbabwe, which is expected to begin production by the end of 2024 and support a platinum mining operation.
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Gamechange did not specify the location or capacity of the three projects in South Africa, but did say that one of them is a government-backed Risk Mitigation Independent Power Producer Program (RMIPPP) project located in the Northern Cape. The RMIPPP scheme aims to alleviate South Africa’s short-term supply gap and alleviate grid constraints.
The other two projects are private-sector undertakings to supply electricity to mining operations in the Northern Cape and Limpopo regions.
Derick Botha, CCO at GameChange Solar said: “Southern Africa has an enormous opportunity to change the energy landscape in the region with utility-scale solar projects, particularly in South Africa, where solar will help alleviate its ongoing energy crisis and help transition from polluting fossil fuels to clean energy.”
South Africa’s electricity minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa opened the country’s largest solar-plus-storage project earlier this week, a 540MW/1,140MWh site in the Northern Cape region.
In December last year, the South African government announced the most recent round of its long-running Renewable Energy Independent Power Producers Procurement Programme (REIPPPP), seeking 1.8GW of solar PV projects. REIPPPP rounds have been seeing slower uptake in South Africa over recent months, as a greater share of projects shift towards the private sector; PV Tech Premium spoke with the South African Photovoltaic Industry Association about this last year.