The Centre for Renewable and Sustainable Energy Studies (CRSES) and the Solar Thermal Energy Research Group (STERG) will be at the conference and you can find us at our booth. An extract from the Department of Energy:

“The Department of Energy, in partnership with various government departments and agencies, is developing a large scale Solar Park in the Northern Cape Province of the Republic of South Africa.

It is anticipated that the Solar Park in the Northern Cape will be the flagship solar power development initiative in South Africa, and will become the nexus of the job creation and industrial localization potential resulting from implementing solar power as part of the efforts of diversifying our country’s energy mix.

The Solar Park is a concentrated zone of solar development including solar power generating facilities and manufacturing of solar components. 

A government designated body – The South African Solar Park Authority will be responsible for, amongst others, to identify the land, building the infrastructure, and will handle aspects such as permitting.  It then leases out land to private developers who design, finance and build individual projects utilizing technologies of their choice within the park, generating power into the national grid on a long term contractual basis, guided by the existing legal framework of the Republic of South Africa.”