Electricity and Energy Minister Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa on Monday announced the appointment of four additional preferred bidders for solar photovoltaic (PV) projects under the seventh bid window of the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP), following the conclusion of value-for-money (VfM) negotiations.

REIPPPP Bid Window 7 was designed to facilitate the procurement of up to 5 000 MW on renewable energy capacity, comprising 1 800 MW solar PV and 3 200 MW onshore wind capacity.

In December last year, the Minister announced the appointment of eight compliant solar PV preferred bidders, with a combined capacity of 1 760 MW. Following a technology reallocation from onshore wind to solar PV as provided for in the request for proposal (RFP), the Department announced in July the appointment of an six additional preferred bidders under this bid window to provide 1 290 MW of solar PV new generation capacity.

At the time, the Department indicated that it would enter into VfM negotiations with a further eight compliant bidders that were eligible for appointment as preferred bidders, subject to positive VfM outcomes. These included four solar PV and four onshore wind eligible bidders.

Ramokgopa has now confirmed that the evaluation of the VfM proposals submitted by the eligible bidders has been completed by the Independent Bid Evaluation Committee. As a result, four preferred bidders have been appointed to provide a total of 890 MW of solar PV capacity, based on their evaluated VfM proposals.

Three of these projects have Red Rocket South Africa, namely the  Rondebosch Solar Park, the Springhaas Solar Facility 1 and the Springhaas Solar Facility 6, all in the Free State.

The fourth project is the Corona solar PV project in the North West, with Engie as the main developer.

With this announcement, the total capacity procured under the REIPPPP Bid Window 7 has now increased  to 3 940 MW. The capacity will be delivered by 18 solar PV IPP projects, spread across the Limpopo, Free State, North-West and Mpumalanga provinces.

The four newly appointed solar PV preferred bidders represent a combined investment of R16-billion.

There is a South African Equity Participation of 49% across all the preferred bidders and an average black economic empowerment participation of 40% has been committed.

These commitments will be formalised through implementation agreements to be signed by the Department and the four projects.

From an economic development perspective, these projects have committed to creating a total of 4134 job opportunities for South African citizens (measured in job years) during both the construction and operational phases of the contracts.

They have also committed to allocating 41% of total project costs to local content, equating to R4.4-billion during construction and R2-billion during the operation and maintenance phases.

In addition, the projects will invest a further R163-million in economic development initiatives, including supplier development, skills development, bursaries for black students, skills development initiatives for disabled persons, and socio-economic development initiatives in communities during construction and over the 20-year lifetime of the projects.