Video shows storm destroying massive solar plant in South Africa

The 100MW Ilanga concentrated solar plant (CSP) in Upington, known as Karoshoek Solar One, was hit by a violent storm on Tuesday, 11 March 2025, which caused significant damage to its solar array.

The plant began commercial operation in November 2018 and boasts a storage capacity of 500MWh. The project cost around R11 billion to complete.

Energy expert Chris Yelland shared a video of the damage and the storm. It shows heavy winds causing significant damage to the plant’s infrastructure and ripping its parabolic mirrors from their mounts.

“The damaged plant in the video is the 100MW Ilanga CSP (concentrating solar plant) with 500 MWh storage, situated in the Uppington area,” said Yelland.

“As bad as this is, it is probably about one-eighth of what was lost at Medupi for 3 to 4 years when Unit 4 had the hydrogen explosion and about one-sixth of what was lost for more than a decade (and I assume permanently) after the Duvha boiler explosion.”

According to Yelland, the plant’s owner, Karoshoek Solar One, is a consortium comprising organisations like Emvelo, the Public Investment Corporation, the Industrial Development Corporation, Karoshoek SDI Trust, Grazigystix, and Hosken Consolidated Investments.

“Eighty per cent of the shares are held by South African entities, with the 20% balance owned by Spanish companies,” he added.

Unlike a traditional solar plant that uses photovoltaic panels to capture energy, CSPs like Ilanga use parabolic mirrors to concentrate sun rays towards a receiver to generate heat.

The heat drives a heat engine connected to an electrical power generator or powers a thermochemical reaction that produces energy.

The Karoshoek Solar One plant is among the country’s biggest operational independent power producer-owned plants, alongside Kathu Solar Park, Kaxu Solar One, and Redstone Solar Thermal Power Plant.

The project was procured through Bid Window 3 of South Africa’s Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme, achieving financial close in 2015 and entering construction in November of that same year.

It reached commercial operation three years later, in November 2018.

The video Chris Yelland shared of the storm, and the damage to the CSP plant is embedded below.