South Africa’s Bokpoort CSP is expected to break ground in mid-April after delays from the inability to reach financial close. According to a report by CSP Today, the start date of the 50 MW parabolic trough installation on the Orange River near Groblershoop was originally expected to by March 4. However, it was pushed back to April 22 due to the financial close postponement of Round 2 of the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Program (REIPPP), affecting all projects in the program.
Pravashin Govender, project director of consortium leader ACWA Power Africa Holdings, was quoted as saying the project sets new standards in that it incorporates nine hours of storage “effectively, on a good day, pretty much a base-load operation.”
The Bokpoort CSP plant was originally designed for a net capacity of 75 MW, but after Abengoa was awarded 150 MW in the first bid round, the company was forced to decrease Bokpoort’s capacity to 50 MW.
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