Teraco, has announced plans to construct a 120MW solar power plant in South Africa. The data centre provider confirmed the move follows an agreement with power utility Eskom to utilize its grid for electricity transmission from the proposed plant.
JUWI Renewable Energies South Africa and Subsolar will partner with the firm for the development of the renewable energy. JUWI has been tasked with managing its procurement, construction and commissioning.
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Energy boost
The project estimated to cost US $106M will is expected to be fully functional within a year and a half. The 120-MW array is expected to generate more than 338,000 MWh a year. It will add to about 6 MW of rooftop solar at Teraco facilities, which is set to be increased to 10 MW.
Acknowledging the significance of renewable energy in addressing these challenges, Hnizdo Hnizdo, CEO of Teraco sees this initiative as an opportunity to contribute to both Teraco’s renewable energy objectives and the overall capacity enhancement of the grid.
“Over the past two years, our uptime has been 100%, but grid availability has been around 15% and at some sites at about 20%. As a result, it was necessary to supplement with diesel, and it’s not cheap. We’re talking about millions of rands in a month. It’s a substantial cost for us. The grid capacity allocation is a significant step towards meeting the renewable energy ambitions of the company and its clients and marks the first phase of its longer-term renewable energy commitment, said Hnizdo.