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- Growthpoint Properties is the first participant in Cape Town's pilot wheeling project to transport electrons on the municipality's grid.
- Solar power generated at Constantia Village shopping centre in the southern suburbs of Cape Town is being wheeled to Growthpoint's office in town.
- The city's six-month pilot project includes 15 wheeling participants, including Amazon Web Services and property developer Redefine.
- For climate change news and analysis, go to News24 Climate Future.
Growthpoint Properties is the first participant in Cape Town's pilot wheeling project to transport electricity on the municipality's grid.
The city on Thursday issued a statement indicating that on Sunday, 10 September, solar power from Growthpoint's shopping centre Constantia Village was "successfully injected" into the city's grid for the first time.
Cape Town launched the pilot wheeling project as part of a set of measures to reduce load shedding by having private generators involved in meeting energy needs.
Wheeling involves having electricity generated by an independent power producer at one location – and then having that power travel across the municipality's grid (in this case, Cape Town) – to an end user in a different location.
"It creates greater access to affordable renewable energy and contributes to resolving the country’s energy crisis," the city said.
In this case, the power generated in the southern suburbs will travel across the grid for use in Growthpoint's office building in the Foreshore. Asset manager Ninety One and Investec Bank occupy the building:
The wheeling is in collaboration with licensed electricity trader Etana Energy. The city and Growthpoint signed off on the wheeling agreement at the end of August.
Fifteen companies are participating in the city's pilot – which will lay the groundwork for future wheeling in Cape Town, enabling businesses to use energy from rooftop solar panels across "multiple locations".
READ | Cape Town wheeling pilot kicks off R65m rooftop solar project - the size of 3 rugby fields
"Overall, Cape Town is planning to add up to one gigawatt of independent power to end load shedding in the city over time. The exact mix may vary, but we expect wheeling to contribute up to 350MW to the grid in time," said Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis.
Estienne de Klerk, SA CEO of Growthpoint Properties, said the project would bring the company closer to its climate commitment to be carbon neutral by 2050. "[It] is the starting point to providing clean green energy to our tenants in Cape Town to further their environmental commitments."
Among the other participants in the wheeling project is property developer Redefine, which plans an R65 million rooftop solar project at its Brackengate 2 property in the northern suburbs. Massmart occupies the property – which is a distribution centre. Redefine said the rooftop solar is roughly the size of three rugby fields, and the power generated would be wheeled to shopping malls Kenilworth Centre and Blue Route Mall – both in the southern suburbs, as well as Redefine's office building in the Foreshore.
