Tournee Solar Park, South Africa – update


Name of the Project
Tournee Solar Park.
Location
The project is located near the Tutuka coal-fired power station, in Standerton, in Mpumalanga, South Africa.
Project Owner/s
Independent power producer (IPP) Red Rocket.
Discovery Green, the renewable-energy business of Discovery, signed a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with Red Rocket in September 2025.
Project Description
The project entails the construction of a 300 MW solar farm.
Tournee will comprise an estimated 463 000 bifacial solar modules and connect to the national grid through a 132 kV overhead powerline.
The solar farm is expected to generate about 720-million kilowatt hours a year and avoid the emission of more than 709 000 CO2-equivalent emissions a year.
Potential Job Creation
Not stated.
Capital Expenditure
The project will be built at a cost of about R5.2-billion on land leased from State-owned power utility Eskom.
Planned Start/End Date
Construction is expected to take 24 months, with commercial operation planned for the fourth quarter of 2027.
Latest Developments
Red Rocket has achieved financial close.
The project is the first and only development to reach this milestone under State-owned power utility Eskom’s 2022 land lease initiative. Discovery Green, the renewable electricity trading arm of JSE-listed Discovery Group, will serve as the offtaker. Financing has been arranged through a club deal involving ABSA, Standard Bank and the Development Bank of Southern Africa.
The initiative originally made more than 6 000 ha around Tutuka and Majuba available to IPPs, but Eskom has since shifted focus to its new renewables unit, Eskom Green, which aims to build 2 GW of capacity by 2026 and close to 6 GW by 2030.
Key Contracts, Suppliers and Consultants
Not disclosed.
Contact Details for Project Information
Red Rocket, tel +27 21 418 3940 or email info@redrocket.energy.
Article Enquiry
Email Article
Save Article
To advertise email advertising@creamermedia.co.za or click here
Comments
Press Office
Announcements
What's On
Subscribe to improve your user experience...
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation