Engie Commissions Kathu CSP Plant in South Africa

The park is expected to operate for 30 years, with a 100 MW capacity delivering an estimated 390 GWh of electricity every year.

French energy and services group, ENGIE has achieved commercial operation of its 100 MW Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) plant in the Northern Cape, South Africa.

The solar plant, which is one of South Africa’s largest Renewable Energy projects, spans over 4.5 square kilometres, with 384,000 mirrors using a patented parabolic trough technology, with curved solar panels tracking the sun’s movement, storing the energy in a molten salt storage system that will allow the plant to keep producing electricity for up to 4.5 hours steadily in absence of solar radiation.

“The completion of Kathu shows our continued commitment to economic and environmentally friendly development in South Africa. Kathu with its molten salt storage design offers a clean solution to overcome the intermittency of renewable energies,” said Isabelle Kocher, CEO of ENGIE.

“We are proud to contribute to the country’s renewable energy goals, and look forward to continuing the projects initiated with local communities making Kathu a genuine driver of regional economic development.”

The massive park is situated outside the Northern Cape Town of South Africa, will have the ability to pump electricity into the national grid even when the sun isn’t out. It will provide clean and reliable energy to the local communities of the John Taolo Gaetsewe District Municipality, the Northern Cape and South Africa as a whole.

The park is expected to operate for 30 years, with a 100 MW capacity delivering an estimated 390 GWh of electricity every year, the equivalent of powering at least 180,000 households. Lowering CO2 emissions by nearly 6 million tons over 20 years.