Atlantis Foundries (AF), one of Africa’s largest foundry operations and subsidiary of Daimler Truck AG, has signed a long-term Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with Energy Partners (EP), an integrated energy solutions company, to build the largest solar plant in the Western Cape.
It is the second big motor industry investment in solar power so far this year. In January Toyota South Africa Motors announced it plans to invest more than R800 million on its main production plant in Prospecton, Durban, so that the plant can move to 100% renewable energy by 2028.
Atlantis Foundries produces automotive castings for the commercial vehicle industry and according to an online search, its overall melting capacity of the foundry now stands at 100 000 tons per annum.
According to the agreement, EP will engineer, finance, construct and operate the ground-mounted solar energy system at AF’s production plant, comprising more than 20 000 solar panels and boasting a total rated capacity of 13.5MWp.
It will be the Western Cape’s largest embedded generation solar project.
EP CEO Manie de Waal said in a statement that the PPA was expected to commence on May 1, 2024 and would not only provide AF with a reliable electricity source at a substantially reduced cost over the next 20 years, it will also align AF with growing environmental awareness in the automotive industry.
“Opting for renewable energy is a significant step, and the system we designed for AF is expected to save more than 22 000 tons of CO2 emissions annually, likely the highest reduction achieved in the South African automobile industry. In financial terms, the system will generate electricity worth more than R35 million per year, at current average Eskom tariffs,” he said.
The system, which has been specifically engineered to align with the foundry’s electrical consumption profile, is estimated to replace up to 20 percent of AF’s annual electricity consumption, considerably reducing its carbon footprint and representing a major step towards sustainable energy utilisation.
It will be integrated into AF’s electrical network that is connected to the City of Cape Town’s grid, and excess energy generated by the plant will be fed into the City’s network through the feed-in programme, contributing to the overall renewable energy capacity of Cape Town.
AF CEO Pieter du Plessis said that as part of the Daimler Truck AG, they try to constantly set and exceed global best practice.
“Our commitment is to both our shareholders, stakeholders and the environment. With this renewable energy generation project, we are setting new standards in the South African automotive industry and alleviating pressure on our constrained national grid. It is a result of extensive cooperation between the AF and EP teams, in conjunction with the Western Cape government and City of Cape Town.”
The project sets the stage for future embedded generation systems exceeding 1MW within Cape Town and the rest of the province.
At the Toyota plant, TSAM will fund the investment, not its Japanese parent, and about 10MW of solar power has already been installed at the plant, with the aim to increase this to 31MW.
The AF Investment is also the second big solar investment announcement in the province this year. In April, the Cape Town metropolitan municipality announced plans to commission a R1.2 billion solar power plant with battery energy capacity.
The municipal project aims to drive Cape Town towards becoming the first load shedding-free city in South Africa.
The solar and storage project will be developed at Paardevlei near Somerset West, part of the Cape Town metropolitan municipality. The project is expected to generate up to 60MW of renewable energy.
According to reports, the Paardinvestmenevlei solar project is one of the two projects that received support from the C40 Cities Finance Facility (CFF).
The facility is supported by the German Federal Ministry of Economic Co-operation and Development, the French Development Agency, and the UK Government, and it is implemented by the German development agency together with the C40 Cities Climate Leadership group.
The feasibility study of the Cape Town solar project is expected to be completed by the end of 2023, with commissioning planned for mid-2026.
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