A warehouse roof in Cape Town is now feeding two shopping centres and an office park across the city. Redefine Properties has switched on a R106-million solar plant on the roof of the Massmart distribution centre in Brackengate, TechCentral reported on 23 October.
The plant is rated at 7MWp and is expected to generate 9.89GWh a year. Its electricity is wheeled, or carried, over the City of Cape Town's network to Kenilworth Centre, Blue Route Mall and The Towers office precinct, under a 20-year commitment. The city's pooled wheeling programme had moved about 3.1GWh by September, according to TechCentral, so this one plant will produce more than three times that in a year.
Late and over the first estimate
- Announced in September 2023 as a 5.5MWp system costing about R86 million, to be built in 2024
- Redesigned to 6.2MW in August 2024, with the grid connection moved to another substation
- Commissioning was then targeted for the fourth quarter of 2025
- Switched on in October 2026, about R20 million above the first estimate, though with about 28% more capacity
TechCentral calculates that the cost per peak watt barely moved, from about R15.60 to about R15.10. The plant uses 11,691 panels over roughly 57,000 square metres of roof and about 300km of cabling.
"It reflects the level of engineering and coordination required to make wheeling viable at scale," said Leon Kok, Redefine's chief operating officer.
Why it matters
Wheeling lets a company generate power where it has space and use it where it needs it. For South African landlords with scattered buildings, that is a way to cut reliance on the grid without solar panels on every roof. The city plans to open pooled wheeling to the wider market "in the months ahead, if all goes to plan", mayoral committee member Xanthea Limberg said in September. Redefine has not said what share of the three properties' power the plant will cover or how much it expects to save.
