Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa has hailed the additional 150 megawatts of dispatchable solar power being fed into the national grid as a milestone.

The minister says this is one of the fulfillments of the Energy Action Plan’s pillars of enabling private investment in generation and fast tracking the procurement of new generation.

The Norwegian renewable energy company Scatec is behind the 540 MW Kenhardt solar farm in the Northern Cape. It’s one of the largest hybrid power projects globally and will deliver renewable energy from five in the morning to half past nine in the evening year-round to the national grid.

It’s for the next 25 years. The site has one-million solar panels and a battery facility of 456 units, each matching the size of a shipping container and weighing 30 tons.