Renewables investor Magnora has sold a 90MW solar PV project in South Africa to independent power producer (IPP) Globeleq.
Development of the project will be carried out by Magnora, in collaboration with the UK-based IPP. The exact location of the plant has not been disclosed, however the renewables investor outlined several industrial customers expressing interest in signing a power purchase agreement (PPA).
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Present in South Africa since 2021, with the acquisition of an 850MW portfolio, Magnora increased its presence in the country last year when it acquired solar and wind developer African Green Ventures. Since then, it has built a portfolio of projects under development of nearly 2GW. Whereas the IPP has 219MW of operational solar PV capacity in South Africa.
During the fifth bidding round of South Africa’s Renewable Energy Independent Power Producers Procurement Programme (REIPPPP), Globeleq was among the companies that ended up being awarded capacity.
Prone to many curtailment issues, South Africa’s grid has been problematic for years, despite the country’s goal to accelerate the deployment of renewables with programmes such as REIPPPP. However, private investments in solar PV have since taken over the interest in developing through the government’s programme, as covered by PV Tech Premium earlier this year.
“The project is a testament to the growing commercial & industrial (C&I) market in South Africa. It is a great credit to the local and Magnora team in charge and a vindication of our decision to expand the operations in South Africa. We see a growing appetite for renewable power from the private sector in South Africa and we are very pleased to enable cleaner energy and more stable and diversified power supply to the South African economy,” said Erik Sneve, CEO of Magnora.
In neighbouring country Mozambique, the UK-based IPP acquired a majority share from Norwegian renewables power firm Scatec’s 52.5% share in the 41MW Central de Mocuba solar PV plant in July this year. The project has been operational since August 2019.