{"id":753617,"date":"2024-02-21T09:12:50","date_gmt":"2024-02-21T07:12:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=753617"},"modified":"2024-02-21T10:01:50","modified_gmt":"2024-02-21T08:01:50","slug":"huge-solar-plant-starts-construction-in-the-free-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/energy\/753617\/huge-solar-plant-starts-construction-in-the-free-state\/","title":{"rendered":"Huge solar plant starts construction in the Free State"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Teraco, a data centre provider, is starting construction on a massive solar PV plant in the Free State. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The group announced it had secured its first grid capacity allocation from Eskom and will start construction on a 120MW utility-scale solar PV plant. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Teraco will connect the system to the national electrical grid and wheel across Eskom and municipal power networks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Wheeling allows generators in outlying areas to use existing transmission and distribution systems to distribute electricity to end-users located in urban areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-wp-embed is-provider-businesstech wp-block-embed-businesstech\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"camPX87Put\"><a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/energy\/722980\/eskoms-big-plan-to-bring-more-private-energy-online-how-it-will-work\/\">Eskom&#8217;s big plan to bring more private energy online &#8211; how it will work<\/a><\/blockquote><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);\" title=\"&#8220;Eskom&#8217;s big plan to bring more private energy online &#8211; how it will work&#8221; &#8212; BusinessTech\" src=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/energy\/722980\/eskoms-big-plan-to-bring-more-private-energy-online-how-it-will-work\/embed\/#?secret=9hOd3pMtGH#?secret=camPX87Put\" data-secret=\"camPX87Put\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThis allocation is a significant step towards meeting our renewable energy ambitions and those of our clients. It is also only the first phase of our longer-term renewable energy commitment,&#8221; said Jan Hnizdo, CEO at Teraco.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;We have been on a long journey over the last few years to obtain these approvals, and our aim now is to execute quickly on the opportunity.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIn South Africa, we have various energy challenges, and this presents an incredible opportunity to meet our near-term renewable energy goals while adding additional power capacity to a generation-constrained grid.&#8221; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;South Africa\u2019s solar resource is a source of competitive advantage for data centres relative to other locations.&#8221; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When fully operational, the 120MW solar plant is expected to produce over 338,000 MWh annually. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;In addition to this project, over the past two years, Teraco has deployed approximately 6MW of roof-top solar integrated into its facilities, and this amount is to be increased to 10MW as new facilities become operational,&#8221; said Bryce Allan, Head of Sustainability at Teraco. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>JUWI Renewable Energies South Africa and Subsolar are working with Teraco to develop the 120 solar PV plant, with JUWI appointed to design and manage the procurement, construction, and commissioning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Teraco has also used a green loan to finance the plant&#8217;s construction. <\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><a  data-lightbox=\"post-image\" href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/teraco-.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1000\" height=\"666\" src=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/teraco-.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-753627\" srcset=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/teraco-.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/teraco--300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/teraco--768x511.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Teraco&#8217;s JB2 facility in Isando already features extensive solar panels. Source: Teraco<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Read<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/budget-speech\/753147\/the-big-hope-for-solar-in-south-africa\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The big hope for solar in South Africa<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Teraco is making use of Eskom&#8217;s new wheeling system, which is essential for bringing more renewable power online. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":649357,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9874],"tags":[1164,26,40],"class_list":["post-753617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-energy","tag-eskom","tag-headline","tag-teraco"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/753617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=753617"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/753617\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":753699,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/753617\/revisions\/753699"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/649357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=753617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=753617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=753617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}