The City of Cape Town’s new R1.2-billion solar energy project would alleviate customers receiving their electricity from the municipality by one full stage of load shedding.

The Paardevlei Ground-mounted Solar Photovoltaic and Batter Energy Storage System Project is a 60MW renewable energy project that will be located outside Somerset West on city owned land.

Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis says about two years ago, the City of Cape Town applied to access technical assistance from the C40 Cities Finance Facility for its climate resilience projects.

More than 60 cities applied, however only Cape Town’s application was approved. The Somerset plant is one of the two main projects that aims to benefit from technical assistance.