Touwsrivier CPV Solar Project is a 44 MW_p (36 MW_AC)

concentrator photovoltaics Concentrator photovoltaics (CPV) (also known as concentrating photovoltaics or concentration photovoltaics) is a photovoltaic technology that generates electricity from sunlight. Unlike conventional photovoltaic systems, it uses lenses or cur ...

(CPV) power station located 13 km outside the town of Touwsrivier in the

Western Cape The Western Cape ( ; , ) is a provinces of South Africa, province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the List of South African provinces by area, fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of , an ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

. The installation reached full capacity in December 2014 and is the second largest operating CPV facility in the world. Electricity produced by the plant is fed into the national grid operated by

Eskom Eskom Hld SOC Ltd or Eskom is a South African electricity public utility. Eskom was established in 1923 as the Electricity Supply Commission (ESCOM) (). Eskom represents South Africa in the Southern African Power Pool. The utility is the larg ...

under a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA).

Facility construction details

The facility consists of 1500 dual-axis CX-S530-II solar tracking systems divided into 60 sections. The 25 systems of each section are connected in parallel to a central grid-connected 630 kW

inverter A power inverter, inverter, or invertor is a power electronic device or circuitry that changes direct current (DC) to alternating current (AC). The resulting AC frequency obtained depends on the particular device employed. Inverters do the op ...

. Each system supports 12 CX-M500 modules which are each rated to produce 2450 W_p. Each module contains 2,400

fresnel lens A Fresnel lens ( ; ; or ) is a type of composite compact lens (optics), lens which reduces the amount of material required compared to a conventional lens by dividing the lens into a set of concentric annular sections. The simpler Dioptrics, d ...

es to concentrate sunlight 500 times onto

multi-junction solar cell Multi-junction (MJ) solar cells are solar cells with multiple p–n junctions made of different semiconductor materials. Each material's p–n junction will produce electric current in response to different wavelengths of light. The use of mult ...

s, allowing a greater efficiency than other photovoltaic power plants. The facility is sited on 190 hectares near a similar 60 kW CPV

pilot plant A pilot plant is a pre-commercial production system that employs new production technology and/or produces small volumes of new technology-based products, mainly for the purpose of learning about the new technology. The knowledge obtained is then ...

on the neighbouring Aquila private game reserve. Group Five Construction (Pty) Ltd served as the EPC contractor for the balance of the project. It is the world's largest assembly of Soitec's Concentrix Solar technology.

Ownership, funding, and operations

Soitec Soitec is a French multinational corporation that manufactures substrates used in the manufacturing of semiconductors. Soitec's semiconductor materials are used to manufacture chips which are used in smartphones, tablets, computers, IT serve ...

initiated the project under the South African government's

Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme The Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP or REI4P) is an initiative by the Government of South Africa, South African government aimed at increasing electricity capacity through private sector investment i ...

(REIPPPP). Construction was financed with a US$100 million (R1 billion) bond

special purpose vehicle A special-purpose entity (SPE), also called a special-purpose vehicle (SPV) or a financial vehicle corporation (FVC), is a legal entity (usually a limited company of some type or, sometimes, a limited partnership) created to fulfill narrow, speci ...

(SPV) on the

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. The project is owned by Soitec (20%); the Public Investment Corporation, which is the South African Government's employee pension fund (40% through a preferred share structure ); Pele Green Energy (Pty) Ltd (35%); and the Touwsrivier Community Trust (5%). Pele Energy also provides oversight of ongoing operation and improvement activities with a subsidiary of juwi Renewable Energies.

Local community

Like other similar solar projects in South Africa, a profit sharing and investment agreement exists with the local community whereby a share of the profits from the plant are invested in improving the town of Touws River. This includes the construction of a

hydroponics Hydroponics is a type of horticulture and a subset of #Passive sub-irrigation, hydroculture which involves growing plants, usually crops or medicinal plants, without soil, by using water-based mineral Plant nutrition, nutrient Solution (chemi ...

farm employing 30 people and upgrades to the town's primary school. Ongoing maintenance and security operations at the plant also employ about 35 people.

Electricity production

Monthly capacity and production data for grid-connected photovoltaic plants in South Africa are available in aggregate from the Renewable Energy Data and Information Service. Data from individual plants is restricted due to Department of Energy confidentiality protocols. Annual electricity production for the Touwsrivier CPV plant has performed near expected targets for the first five years of operation (2015–2019) as summarized in thi
bond credit rating opinion
from

Moody's Moody's Ratings, previously and still legally known as Moody's Investors Service and often referred to as Moody's, is the bond credit rating business of Moody's Corporation, representing the company's traditional line of business and its histo ...

. Note that the plant's 44 MW_p peak DC rating is specified under ''concentrator standard test conditions'' (CSTC) of DNI=1000 W/m², AM1.5D, & T_cell=25 °C, as per the

IEC The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC; ) is an international standards organization that prepares and publishes international standards for all electrical, electronic and related technologies. IEC standards cover a vast range of ...

62670 standard convention. Production capacity is 36MW based on

62670 ''concentrator standard operating conditions'' (CSOC) of DNI=900 W/m², AM1.5D, T_ambient=20 °C, & Wind speed=2 m/s, and is also the value quoted by several sources as representing the plant's expected AC capacity (denoted as MW_AC). A

capacity factor The net capacity factor is the unitless ratio of actual electrical energy output over a given period of time to the theoretical maximum electrical energy output over that period. The theoretical maximum energy output of a given installation is def ...

of 0.230 (23.0%) then corresponds to annual production of: :

(36\ \mbox) \times (0.230\ ) \times (365\ \mbox) \times (24\ \mbox) = 72,500\ \mbox

External links

VIDEO: South Africa Uses Solar Energy to Fight Blackouts

VIDEO: Touws River Upliftment - CPV1 Solar Power Plant

Operation & maintenance – The key for reliable performance in a CPV power plant

Large-scale and long-term CPV power plant field results

References

{{Power in South Africa , state=expanded Photovoltaic power stations in South Africa Economy of the Western Cape Cape Winelands District Municipality