The solar farms keeping load-shedding at bay in South Africa

South Africa has 23 independent power producer–owned solar power facilities, each contributing more than 75MW of dispatchable power to the grid, with the largest providing 150MW.

The country’s independent power producer (IPP) procurement programme aims to add 39GW of capacity to South Africa’s energy mix by 2030.

Plants already in operation have contributed significantly to preventing load-shedding. Scatec’s Kenhardt hybrid solar and battery energy storage facility, with 540MW capacity, is the country’s largest.

However, Kenhardt only contributes 150MW of dispatchable power to the national electricity grid through a 20-year Power Purchase Agreement with Eskom.

Despite contributing a fraction of its total capacity, the Kenhardt solar plant contributes the most power to the grid of any solar power plant in South Africa.

After the Kenhardt facility, the Xina Solar One, Karoshoek Solar One, Kathu Solar Park, Kaxu Solar One, and Redstone Solar Thermal Power Plant are the next-largest at 100MW each.

Each of these plants is located in the Northern Cape and uses concentrated solar generation technology to generate electricity.

Unlike traditional solar plants that use photovoltaic panels to capture energy, concentrated solar plants use parabolic mirrors to concentrate sunlight towards a receiver to generate heat.

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

South Africa has 17 solar IPP projects, each contributing 75MW of generating capacity to the grid. These plants are a mix of fixed crystalline photovoltaic and fixed thin-film photovoltaic plants.

According to the Department of Energy and Electricity’s IPP Projects platform, the 25 largest solar and concentrated solar farms in South Africa contribute nearly 2,100MW to the national grid.

Assuming the plants are running at peak capacity, their contribution is sufficient to prevent two stages of load-shedding.

The table below lists the 25 largest solar power farms contributing power to the national electricity grid.

Eskom’s silent saviour

The National Transmission Company of South Africa (NTCSA) says private solar power significantly contributes to keeping load-shedding at bay.

The NTCSA includes the System Operator, which is responsible for managing the stability of the grid by matching electricity supply and demand in South Africa.

Following peak load-shedding levels in 2022 and 2023, rooftop solar capacity has surged in South Africa as residents and businesses sought to escape the rotational power cuts.

According to the NTCSA’s data, installed private rooftop solar in South Africa reached 6,350MW in May 2025, up from 2,265MW in July 2022.

When operating at peak capacity, South Africa’s private rooftop solar capacity is sufficient to stave off six stages of load-shedding.

In recent feedback to MyBroadband, the NTCSA confirmed that the weather in early 2025 resulted in lower solar power production and contributed to load-shedding being necessary.

“The northern and central parts of South Africa experienced long periods of overcast conditions, particularly in Gauteng, where much of the behind-the-meter PV is installed,” it said.

The prolonged periods of low solar production forced users to return to the grid for power during the day, meaning Eskom had to supplement generation with pumped storage and open-cycle gas turbines.

“Due to the higher usage of these generators from the beginning of a week, the fuel sources began to deplete towards the end of the week,” the NTCSA said.

“This is clearly seen by the number of weekend load-shedding events that were needed to reduce demand from the grid in order to replenish the dam and diesel levels.”