QAZAQ GREEN. South Africa’s electric utility Eskom has greenlit the development of a 342-MW solar park project that will form part of a 1,000-MW complex in the country’s Northern Cape province, Renewables Now reports.

The budget validation will enable construction of the project’s initial phase to begin in the first quarter of next year, developer Soventix GmbH said. The Wesel, Germany-based company is the original developer of the project and submitted it under the country’s Renewable Independent Power Producer Programme (REIPPP). Last summer, it sold the rights to the cluster’s phase one to SolarAfrica, which is expected to either re-sell the project following its completion or start selling green electricity certificates related to its future output.

The photovoltaic (PV) farm will be installed in the town of De Aar, in the central parts of South Africa, and will be one of the first large-scale solar parks to be connected to Eskom’s 400-kV transmission network. The capacity of the proposed cluster will be installed in three stages using single-axis solar tracking technology.

“The scope and planning of this project will pave the way for other developers and IPPs to connect projects of this size to the network in the future,” Soventix said.

Opportunities will be assessed to combine power generation at De Aar with sheep farming, according to the statement.