Utility-scale PV power and energy supply outlook for South Africa in 2015

In South Africa, the projects for the first two rounds of the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP) have reached financial closure, and construction and commissioning has commenced, on all of the twenty-seven PV sites. The question remains as to what can be expected from these PV facilities in 2015 should all of them be fully operational. The objective of the paper was then to analyse the power and energy supply outlook from an annual time series simulation of all approved utility-scale PV facilities. The total amount of delivered energy, if the solar resource profile in 2015 will be similar to that of 2010, will be 1906GWh. This amounts to just below 1% of the total (net) electricity generated by Eskom, the national utility, in 2012. The cumulative maximum power will almost reach 900MW. Thus, all of the PV projects will represent up to a maximum of 2% of Eskom's net rated capacity. Of importance to policy- and decision-makers, is that the supplied power and energy performances are well within the best practice spinning reserve of the national grid. As a consequence, the intermittencies of these facilities are of lesser importance.