Amazon launches first solar power station in South Africa

Amazon Web Services has completed its first operational solar project in South Africa. A 10 MW photovoltaic project developed by Cape Town-based solar company SOLA Group has started generating clean energy for the local unit of an Amazon subsidiary three months ahead of schedule. The plant has been described as “the first operational large scale solar wheeling project” in South Africa.

The project design will result in more than an estimated 25,000 tons of carbon emissions avoided annually, the equivalent of removing 5,400 cars from the road for a year, AWS said.

“Amazon is committed to working with governments and utility suppliers around the world to help bring more new renewable energy projects online, and we’re honoured to be able to work with the Department of Minerals and Energy, the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA), and Eskom to help deliver a new model for renewable energy generation in South Africa,” said Nat Sahlstrom, director of AWS Energy.

“This project brings Amazon closer to achieving net-zero carbon by 2040 and powering our operations with 100% renewable energy, a commitment we’re on path to achieve five years early by 2025.”

South Africa-owned SOLA – in which mining and football magnate Patrice Motsepe‘s African Rainbow Energy and Power business holds a 40% stake – on Friday said it had installed more than 24,000 bifacial, single-axis tracker mounted solar panels across a 20ha site on the Northern Cape.

The solar project, which the developer said will generate 28 GWh of clean power annually, will transfer electricity using the grid of national utility Eskom, which is equivalent to the annual electricity consumption of over 8,000 average South African homes. The South African unit of the Amazon Web Services, cloud computing arm of the U.S. retail titan will buy the solar energy generated.

Cape Town-based SOLA did not reveal the price Amazon has agreed to pay under the corporate power purchase agreement, nor the rate of any wheeling charges which will be applied by financially troubled Eskom, for the use of its electricity transmission network. The solar project is more than 63% Black-owned and its shareholders include the Black women-owned Johannesburg investment and advisory firm Mahlako a Phahla Investments.

The developer, in a press release issued on Friday, praised the assistance offered by South Africa’s Department of Mineral Resources and Energy, Eskom, and the National Energy Regulator of South Africa, in getting the nation’s first solar wheeling project up and running.

SOLA added, the 10 MW solar project created 167 jobs in its construction phase – 63% of which went to locals – and waste wood, from items such as pallets and electrical cable drums, was donated to nearby furniture businesses. “It’s important that while we’re building renewable energy capacity in South Africa that we’re also developing South African companies and skills,” says Dom Wills, chief executive of SOLA Group, the South African company responsible for developing and operating the energy plant.