South Africa’s Bokpoort CSP project, a 50MW CSP Power Plant, achieved 1,009.31MWh in a single day, the highest achieved over a single 24-hour period.

Bokpoort CSP chief executive, Ryno Lacock, announced this milestone, which took place on Monday 27 November.

The previous record was 999.13MWh on 28th November 2016, which fell just short of the ‘Sweet Spot’ of 1,000MWh per day – equivalent to 20 hours of full load operations (with a 50MW turbine and a 9.3 hour storage system) akin to base-load technologies.

The project was awarded under South Africa’s 2^nd bidding window of the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP).

Bokpoort CSP hits the mark

According to the project developer, ACWA Power, the plant has consistently exceeded all the key focus priorities of the REIPPP programme in terms of Socio-Economic and Enterprise Development and has received several awards over the last 2 years for these achievements.

The !kheis community in the Northern Cape are the direct benefactors with 1,300 jobs created during construction, with 62 permanent jobs now in full operation, doubling that if plant services are considered.

In addition, 20 local learners have also been employed to develop into skilled plant operators and maintainers with the aim of having the plant run by majority local !kheis municipality residents within the next few years.

The Deputy MD of Acwa Power for the Southern African region and member of the Board of Bokpoort CSP, Nandu Bhula commented: “Bokpoort has set a new African record of 161 hours of continuous operations for a renewable plant, with day & night production in March last year and now topping that by setting a new record for the highest daily production is truly amazing. The plant has also recently achieved 100% of its base case production expectations.”

South African CSP

"With South Africa’s Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) soon to be finalised, the future of CSP in South Africa should not be uncertain anymore, especially given the great success of Bokpoort CSP and similar plants across South Africa and other countries with similar rich solar resources," the Saudi Arabia-based firm said.

The firm added: "In addition, the recent price trajectory together with its quick build time, high localisation potential and job creation benefits, should influence the adoption of CSP technology into the IRP.

"Concentrated Solar Power should, without doubt, take its rightful place amongst other suitable technologies in our energy security horizon."