RENEWABLE energy solutions provider SOLA Group has announced that it achieved its ambitious goal of producing 1-billion kilowatt hours (kWh) of renewable energy generation by 2025 – a month early, having hit the target at the start of December 2024.
This milestone represents a significant contribution to South Africa’s renewable energy capacity and the country’s transition towards a more sustainable energy mix, says SOLA MD Katherine Persson. “1-billion kWh is enough electricity to meet almost all of the residential demand in Bloemfontein, for an entire year. We produced the overwhelming majority of this in the past few months, showing an exponential increase in the clean electricity we are producing” explains Persson.
Staying true to its mission of uplifting the communities where it works, Persson says that in the past two years, SOLA Group’s four major projects have created 1767 jobs for local workers during their construction phase, with a number of individuals transitioning into longer-term employment during the sites’ operations phases.
Collectively, she says, the four projects have spent more than R462,5-million on local goods and services in the communities and towns close to the projects, directly boosting economic activity and supporting local enterprises. In addition to this, the projects have, to date, invested R5,3-million in community development initiatives, in partnership with host communities and other key stakeholders.
Persson explains that policy certainty has played a big role in the exponential increase in renewable energy generation since 2021.
“In 2013 SOLA set the target of producing 100-million kWh by 2020. We achieved this goal on 31 December, 2019. Then in 2021, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced an amendment to Schedule 2 of the Electricity Regulation Act, which raised the licensing threshold for embedded generation projects from 1 MW to 100 MW. On 17 January 2023, the government amended Schedule 2 again, removing the licensing threshold entirely.. The government’s decision to remove the cap was a key milestone that enabled us to scale up and achieve 10 times the generation we did over the seven years prior, in a far shorter timeframe,” explains Persson.
“Policy certainty creates an environment, where, if you just give it time, the private market will create value for the country. There is no doubt that the lifting of the license cap was a turning point. Looking forward, if the government can ensure continued policy certainty, including clear and fair processes to access the grid, we will be in a strong position to set an even more ambitious goal for 2030,” says Persson.
Expanding on the value private players in the renewable sector create, Persson explains that generation by SOLA’s solar plants serves commercial customers, and alleviates the impact of day-time loadshedding on the country. “Our plants in Lichtenberg, for example, represent 20% of a single stage of load shedding. We all know there’s been a respite from load shedding now, but until very recently the cost of unserved energy was a significant contributor to stagnant economic growth in South Africa.”
