In the last year, GPTech has intensified its presence in South Africa, the country that is leading the rapid growth of Africa’s solar PV capacity. The partnership with RWW Engineering has allowed the company to open a local production line in compliance with the new socio-economic requirements of the South African goverment’s Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement (REIPPP) Programme. 

The commercial alliance guarantees that all equipment are manufactured and marketed in line with local content requirements. In words of Luis Terrón, GPTech Chief Operation Officer, “Besides knowing the grid code requirements and the technical specifications to be met at the point of interconnection; it is key to know all the aspects related to supply network, logistics and on-site installation.” Thanks to our experienced project managers team and RWW partnership, GPTech also ensures a complete customer assistance, including after-sale service in the region, PV plant maintenance programmes or a fast spare parts service.

In this local production line, GPTech has manufactured the PV solutions provided for three facilities: Upington (258 MW) and De Wildt (50 MW) in South Africa; and Mocuba (30 MW) in Mozambique. They are equipped with the SmartPV+ solution, consisting of PV inverters (4300 kVA) and Power Plant Controllers (PPC). These solar parks are expected to produce more than 420 GWh per year.

Just recently, the South African government has launched the request for proposals for the procurement of 2.6 GW under the bid window 5 of the REIPPP programme. Specifically, this round will seek to award 1 GW of utility-scale solar PV and 1.6 GW of wind.

The new procurement exercise is part of a plan to tender almost 12 GW of power generation capacity and follows the recent publication of South Africa’s new Integrated Resource Plan (IRP), which aims for up to 6 GW of new large-scale solar by 2030 as well as up to 6 GW of distributed-generation capacity.

Our experience with Upington and De Wildt shows the commitment and capacity of GPTech to partner with interested companies for the upcoming REIPPP tendering process.