A new 50MW concentrated solar power (CSP) plant is set to come up on the farm Bokpoort, near Upington, in the Northern Cape.
The construction on the new plant began on 12 August 2013 and is expected to complete by 2015.
Netherlands-based international project management and engineering consultancy firm Royal Haskoning will handle the independent Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) during construction.
The EIA includes an Environmental Management Plan (EMP) as well as Environmental Control and Monitoring.
The new plant will have a capacity to store eight to ten hours of electricity, which can be used as solar electricity at night.
In 2010, Royal Haskoning was appointed for the inception phase of the project to undertake the EIA process and for the compilation of a Basic Assessment for the pipeline abstraction of water from the Orange River.
The CSP plant will also use wastewater during the process of photovoltaic (PV) power generation, which will be treated at the on-site wastewater treatment plant and returned to the CSP system.
The CSP plant project is being funded by the ACWA Power Consortium, which comprises ACWA Power and SolAfrica.