Renewable-energy company SOLA Group has produced one-billion kilowatt-hours of renewable energy, reaching this goal one month earlier than planned.

The company produced the majority of this amount over the past few months, says SOLA MD Katherine Persson.

One-billion kilowatt-hours is enough electricity to meet almost all of the residential demand in Bloemfontein for a year and represents a significant contribution to South Africa’s renewable-energy capacity and the country’s transition towards a more sustainable energy mix, she says.

In the past two years, SOLA Group’s four major projects have created 1 767 jobs for local workers during their construction phase, with several people transitioning into longer-term employment during the sites’ operations phases.

Its four projects have collectively spent more than R462.5-million on local goods and services in the communities and towns close to the projects, thereby directly boosting economic activity and supporting local enterprises.

Additionally, the projects have invested R5.3-million in community development initiatives in partnership with host communities and other key stakeholders, Persson says.

Policy certainty has played a big role in the exponential increase in renewable-energy generation since 2021, she emphasises.

In 2013, SOLA set a target of producing 100-million kilowatt-hours and achieved this goal in December 2019. In 2021, the licensing threshold for embedded generation projects was raised to 100 MW from 1 MW and, in January 2022, the licensing threshold was removed entirely.

The removal of the cap enabled the company to scale up and achieve ten times the generation it did over the preceding seven years in a far shorter time frame, explains Persson.

“Policy certainty creates an environment where the private market will create value for the country and the lifting of the licence cap was a turning point. If policy certainty continues, including clear and fair processes to access the grid, we will be in a strong position to set an even more ambitious goal for 2030,” she says.

Further, SOLA is committed to South Africa’s renewable-energy transition and supporting the country’s economic development through clean, affordable and reliable energy solutions.

“Our Springbok and Selemela 1 SOLAr projects are in the final stages of construction and with many more projects in the pipeline, we aim to keep growing and delivering clean electricity to reduce reliance on damaging fossil fuels,” she says.