Teraco is Set to Build a $106 Million solar Facility to Tackle South Africa’s Power Constraints. As the nation’s power crisis continues, Teraco, an African carrier-neutral colocation provider, has stated that it intends to build a 120-megawatt (MW) utility-scale solar photovoltaic (PV) energy project in the Free State region of South Africa to power its data centers.
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Teraco is Set to Build a $106 Million Solar Facility to Tackle South Africa’s Power Constraints
The CEO of Teraco, Jan Hnizdo, said that Eskom, the national electricity provider in South Africa, has granted the firm its first allocation of grid capacity. The vendor-neutral data center provider plans to install the solar plant project, which will cost about R2 billion which is $106 million, and it will be operational in 18 months
Teraco claims it will be able to link its proposed 120 MW solar facility to the national electricity grid thanks to Eskom’s allotment of grid capacity. The produced electricity will then be transported throughout the nation’s Teraco facilities via municipal and Eskom power networks.
When the 120 MW solar PV facility is fully operating, Teraco claims it will produce over 338 000MWh annually.
Businesses in the nation have turned their attention to locating alternate energy sources as state-owned Eskom, which provides over 95% of South Africa’s electricity via coal-fired power plants, struggles to meet demand.
The Economy of Southern Africa and Commercial Operations
The economy of Southern Africa and commercial operations have been severely damaged by Eskom’s load-shedding in recent years. To lessen the negative consequences of load-shedding, mining, and telecom firms are opting to split from the financially struggling Eskom.
To continue operating despite Eskom’s power outages, Teraco claimed to be spending “millions” of rands every month on diesel generators to power its data centers.
Hnizdo explained, “Over the past two years, our uptime has been 100%, but grid availability has been around 15% and at some sites at about 20%. So, we needed to supplement that with diesel, and it’s a huge cost. I can tell you it costs millions of rands in a month. It’s a huge cost to us.”
Teraco Aims for Renewable Energy and Satisfying Consumer Demands
The vendor-neutral data center provider is growing its footprint in South Africa at the same time as this development. The Isando Campus JB1/JB3/JB5 (70MW), the Bredell Campus JB2/JB4 (64MW), the Cape Town Campus CT1/CT2 (50MW). And Durban (2MW) contributes to the company’s current critical power load capacity of 186MW.
According to CEO Hnizdo, allocating grid capacity is a critical step in realizing the company’s aim for renewable energy and satisfying consumer demands. Teraco has been pursuing these approvals for a few years, he continued, and the current objective is to carry it out as soon as possible.
Teraco has teamed up with Subsolar and Juwi Renewable Energies South Africa to develop the 120MW solar PV proposal. The latter is in charge of installation, while the former is in charge of design and oversees procurement, construction, and commissioning.
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