{"id":128586,"date":"2016-07-21T12:01:27","date_gmt":"2016-07-21T10:01:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/germistoncitynews.co.za\/128586\/check-out-africas-largest-solar-farm\/"},"modified":"2016-07-21T12:01:27","modified_gmt":"2016-07-21T10:01:27","slug":"check-out-africas-largest-solar-farm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/germiston-city-news\/news-headlines\/2016\/07\/21\/check-out-africas-largest-solar-farm\/","title":{"rendered":"Check out Africa\u2019s largest solar farm"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Jasper Solar Farm\u00a0is fully operational to power up to 80 000 homes in South Africa. With a $12 million (R171 million) investment from Google, it forms the beginning of an alternative power energy source for the future South Africa.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: 0;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/maps\/embed?pb=!1m17!1m11!1m3!1d6446.7638033748235!2d23.36312987176081!3d-28.29807532839862!2m2!1f0!2f0!3m2!1i1024!2i768!4f13.1!3m3!1m2!1s0x0%3A0x0!2zMjjCsDE3JzUzLjAiUyAyM8KwMjEnNTYuMCJF!5e1!3m2!1sen!2s!4v1469093063931\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p><div class=\"stream-item stream-item-in-post stream-item-inline-post aligncenter\"><\/div>\n<p>It has a rated capacity of 96 megawatts and will produce about 180,000 hours of clean energy annually for South African residents.<\/p>\n<p>The farm won\u2019t stay the biggest solar project for long. A 100-megawatt concentrated solar thermal power (CSP) project called Redstone is also under construction in Postmasburg, near Kimberley. The Jasper Project generated about 1 million man-hours of paid work during construction, peaking at over 800 on-site construction jobs.<\/p><div class=\"stream-item stream-item-in-post stream-item-inline-post aligncenter\"><\/div>\n<p>45% of the total project value was spent on \u201clocal content\u201d to help increase the positive economic impact on the area.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/albertonrecord.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/35\/2016\/07\/large-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone  wp-image-114873\" src=\"https:\/\/albertonrecord.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/35\/2016\/07\/large-1.jpg\" alt=\"large (1)\" width=\"645\" height=\"430\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>As many South Africans can bear witness to, many households and businesses endured an alarming number of rolling blackouts\u00a0because of lack of generating capacity. Due to these power generating problems, the government was forced to look at new potential sources of electricity. This\u00a0led to South Africa having the highest growth in clean energy investment in the world in 2012. While SA\u00a0is dependent on fossil fuels, its abundant\u00a0resources of wind and sun have made it possible\u00a0to diversify and to set itself the goal of installing 18 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity by 2030.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/albertonrecord.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/35\/2016\/07\/w704-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-114874\" src=\"https:\/\/albertonrecord.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/35\/2016\/07\/w704-1.jpg\" alt=\"w704 (1)\" width=\"650\" height=\"366\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Google has a recent history of investing in wind and solar power, and since 2010 has committed to more than US$1 billion (R14 billion) in renewable energy projects worldwide.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/albertonrecord.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/35\/2016\/07\/w704.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-114875\" src=\"https:\/\/albertonrecord.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/35\/2016\/07\/w704.jpg\" alt=\"w704\" width=\"650\" height=\"366\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.solarreserve.com\/en\/global-projects\/csp\/redstone\" target=\"_blank\">SolarReserve<\/a> is the company that develops these large-scale solar energy projects. They joined forces with the Kensani Group\u00a0(an experienced empowerment investment player in South Africa) and Intikon Energy (a South African developer of renewable energy projects) to develop three<a href=\"http:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/science-news\/science-at-nasa\/2002\/solarcells\/\" target=\"_blank\">\u00a0photovoltaic<\/a>\u00a0(PV) solar energy projects in SA. This consortium was awarded preferred bidder status in May 2012 by the Department of Energy. SolarReserve is busy on two other 75 megawatt projects, Letsatsi and Lesedi.<\/p>\n<div class='tie-fluid-width-video-wrapper tie-ignore-fitvid' style='margin-bottom: 30px;'>\n\t\t\t<iframe style='width: 100%; min-height: 300px; aspect-ratio: 16\/9;' src='https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/EfUZofkc0Mw' loading='lazy'><\/iframe>\n\t\t<\/div>\n<\/p><div class=\"stream-item stream-item-below-post-content\">\n<div class='tenancy_slot tenancy_slot_1 jannah_ad' style='display: none;' data-query-id='b4dd56974416f81c5048d36199d07439'><\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Jasper Solar Farm, located near Kimberley, has become Africa\u2019s largest solar power project since construction was completed in 2014.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7783,"featured_media":128587,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"hasGravity":false,"cxt_article_byline":"Caxton Central","cxt_disable_google_ads":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,2],"tags":[10230,11779,11780,11781,11782,11783,2362,11784],"class_list":["post-128586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news-headlines","tag-energy","tag-kimberley","tag-lesedi-project","tag-megawatts","tag-redstone","tag-solar-power","tag-south-africa","tag-the-jasper-solar-farm-google"],"amp_enabled":true,"category_labels":{"Category":"News","SubCategory":"Local news"},"tag_labels":["energy","Kimberley","Lesedi Project","megawatts","Redstone","solar power","South Africa","The Jasper Solar Farm. Google"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/germiston-city-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/germiston-city-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/germiston-city-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/germiston-city-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7783"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/germiston-city-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=128586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/germiston-city-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128586\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/germiston-city-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/128587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/germiston-city-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/germiston-city-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/germiston-city-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}