ACWA Power says it will begin construction this year on a 100MW solar energy plant in South Africa as Saudi Arabia and the UAE announced that the two countries will invest a combined $20 billion into the country, according to reports.
The 100MW Redstone concentrated solar thermal power (CSP) plant, whose construction had initially been scheduled to commence in 2017, will be located in the country’s Northern Cape Province and will be capable of supplying power to 210,000 homes once operational, Arabian Industry reports.
The CSP plant feature solar energy storage technology that “will allow solar energy to be utilized to generate electricity not only when the sun is shining but also through the night cumulatively dispatching 480,000 megawatt-hours per year,” ACWA said in a press release on its website.
“The CSP plant will use a central salt receiver technology with 12 hours of thermal storage allowing the plant to generate during the evening peak demand periods. In addition, while photovoltaics (PV) or wind cannot serve the evening peak unless then linked with utility scale batteries which are extremely expensive, the CSP Central Tower solution will in comparison generate cost competitively more than double the MWh output of electrical energy per the rated MW capacity,” according to ACWA.
“We are pleased to enter into this agreement, which further strengthens our efforts supporting South Africa’s renewable energy program. We are committed to providing the country with the most advanced and versatile solar technology solutions which can efficiently and reliably produce clean energy throughout the 24 hour period if called upon to do so,” said Mohammad Abunayyan, chairman of ACWA Power.
