News24 Business | Cape Town wheeling pilot kicks off R65m rooftop solar project – the size of 3 rugby fields

• Redefine Properties’ R65 million solar rooftop project at the Massmart distribution centre in Cape Town is expected to be roughly the size of three rugby fields.
• The rooftop solar forms part of the City of Cape Town’s pilot wheeling project, and installation will start in October.
• Power generated will be fed to properties Redefine owns, including Kenilworth Centre and Blue Route Mall.
• For climate change news and analysis, go to News24 Climate Future.

Rollout of Cape Town’s wheeling project – launched as part of a set of measures to address load shedding – is getting well under way, with the installation of a massive rooftop solar PV project set to begin within weeks.

Wheeling involves having power generated at one site and then transported across the grid infrastructure (either owned by Eskom or a municipality like the City of Cape Town) to the point where it will be used, like a mine or a shopping centre.

The CoCT announced in June that 15 companies would be participating in its approved pilot, selling electricity to 40 commercial consumers using the city’s grid.

READ | Amazon, Redefine Properties sign up for Cape Town’s latest load shedding solution 

Redefine Properties’ project, mentioned above, has installation scheduled to start in October 2023. It will be on Redefine’s Brackengate 2 property in Cape Town’s northern suburbs, which is occupied by Massmart and used for its distribution centre. 

The distribution centre already relies on a solar PV installation for some of its power needs. But there is still a lot of space on the rooftop for more solar panels – more than 27 000 square meters of them, or close to the area occupied by three rugby fields.

Redefine’s project is expected to have 8.8 gigawatt-hours wheeled to the grid annually, with power wheeled or transported to Kenilworth Centre and Blue Route Mall – both in the southern suburbs of Cape Town – as well as office building Towers in the central business district.

The plant itself is estimated to cost around R65 million, together with R21 million in upgrades to the City of Cape Town’s grid infrastructure. Total capital expenditure will amount to some R86 million.