Acciona, out of Spain, is looking to enlarge its footprint in southern Africa’s green energy sector. The company says it sees renewable energy playing a big role in the coming years, with its South African manager Rafael Esteban saying it was a “viable business.”
Esteban was speaking during a media visit to the firm’s solar farm in South Africa’s Northern Cape which is now working at full capacity. The solar farm was connected to South Africa’s power grid last year. The Sishen solar plant uses PV energy and produces 94.3 MW at peak production.
Acciona, which also produces hydropower and biomass energy through burning grass, wood and energy crops, said it will complete constructing a wind farm in Cape Town later this month which will have a power generation capacity of 138 MW.
Esteban said Acciona still expected coal to play a major role in South Africa’s energy mix, but did say that renewables would be increasingly important as the South African government looked to source power from a variety of sources.