Power and automation technology group ABB will build two solar photovoltaic (PV) power plants for electricity provider Eskom in South Africa.
These pilot projects will be located on greenfield sites adjacent to the coal-fired power stations at Lethabo in the Free State province and at Kendal in the Mpumalanga province.
At the Kendal site, ABB will provide a fixed tilt solar PV power plant with a station capacity of 620kW, and at the Lethabo site, the installation will include a single-axis tracking solar plant with a peaking capacity of 575kW.
The Kendal power station is expected to generate about 11.44 million kWh of electricity per year, while the Lethabo facility will produce approximately 12.49 million kWh of electricity annually.
The solar plants, which will be capable of remote operation and monitoring, are scheduled to be completed by November 2011.
The facilities will be designed to operate independently to produce electrical power for use by the existing power stations, ABB said.
