S Africa unveils 25 preferred bidders in 2.6-GW renewables tender

South Africa’s minister of mineral resources and energy, Gwede Mantashe, on Thursday announced the names of 25 preferred bidders in a tender that will contract just under 2.6 GW of renewables.

The tender in question is the fifth round of the country’s Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP). In August, the Department of Energy published a list of 39 wind and 63 solar projects that had submitted bids.

The list of names published on Thursday shows that 12 wind and 13 solar bids were selected. Every single solar project that was picked has a capacity of 75 MW, meaning that the total solar generation that will be contracted amounts to 975 MW. On other hand, ten of the chosen wind projects have individual capacities of 140 MW, one is of 124 MW and one of 84 MW for a combined total of 1.6 GW.

Eight projects are located in the Free State province, seven will be built in each of Northern Cape and Western Cape, two in Eastern Cape and one in KwaZulu-Natal.

The fully indexed prices offered for each project range from ZAR 344.25 (USD 22.6/EUR 19.37) per MWh to ZAR 617.70/MWh. The lowest price is associated with the 124-MW Dwarsrug wind project in the Northern Cape, while the highest is for the 84-MW Wolf wind farm in the Eastern Cape.

Mainstream Renewable Power said separately that 12 of its own projects have won preferred bidder status, representing 1.27 GW or roughly half of the total allocation. More details are available here.

As previously announced, the goal of the fifth round was to award 1 GW of solar and 1.6 GW of onshore wind capacity and have this total become grid-connected by April 2024, at the latest.

(ZAR 10 = USD 0.657/EUR 0.563)

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