South African independent power producer (IPP) Red Rocket has reached financial close on a 300 MW solar PV project, which will be built at a cost of about R5.2-billion on land leased to it by Eskom.

The Tournee Solar Park is in close proximity to the Tutuka coal-fired power station, in Mpumalanga, and construction is expected to take 24 months to complete, with commercial operation anticipated in the fourth quarter of 2027.

Discovery Green, the electricity trading business within the larger JSE-listed Discovery Group that contracts to supply wheeled green electricity to large and small companies, is the project’s offtaker.

Tournee is being financed through a club deal with ABSA, Standard Bank and the Development Bank of Southern Africa.

The project is the first and only development to reach the milestone under Eskom’s 2022 land lease initiative, whereby land parcels surrounding the Tutuka and Majuba power stations were made available to IPP investors eager to access grid-ready sites.

A total of 6 184 ha was set aside for the initiative that was championed by then CEO André de Ruyter.

Besides Red Rocket, Eskom entered into lease agreements with three other IPPs, namely HDF Energy South Africa, Sola Group, and Mainstream Renewable Power Developments South Africa.

Eskom has since discontinued the scheme and is, instead, planning to launch a standalone renewables business dubbed Eskom Green to pursue its renewables ambitions in partnership with IPPs.

The State-owned company has outlined plans to build 2 GW of renewables by 2026 and to increase its renewables generation to close to 6 GW by 2030.

It is also currently entertaining bids from large power users for solar electricity that will arise from projects with a capacity of 291 MW; an initiative that has raised competition concerns, particularly in relation to whether Eskom’s projects could bypass the grid-access rules that IPPs need to navigate.

Red Rocket CEO Matteo Brambilla said the Tournee Solar Park demonstrated how collaboration between public and private partners could deliver large-scale, clean energy solutions in support of South Africa’s energy transition.

“We are proud of our continued partnership with Eskom, and to be the first and only IPP to bring a project from the 2022 innovative land lease initiative to life,” Brambilla said in a statement.

Eskom group executive for renewables Rivoningo Mnisi congratulated Red Rocket on the milestone, which he said exemplified the potential for public-private collaboration to add generation capacity and accelerate the transition to cleaner energy.

“Eskom Green is dedicated to cooperating with the private sector in developing and promoting renewable-energy technologies,” Mnisi added.

Red Rocket head of development Sharief Harris reported that the project would be developed on a parcel of land in Standerton that is equivalent in size to 800 rugby fields.

The project will comprise 463 000 bifacial PV modules on single-axis trackers and the facility will be connected to the grid by means of a 132 kV overhead power line.

Once fully operational, the plant is expected to generate an average of 720-million kilowatt-hours yearly over its 20-year lifespan, which Red Rocket describes as enough energy to power about 224 000 standard South African homes each year.