Engineering

The country’s first CSP power plant presents engineering challenges.

Acomplicated renewable energy construction contract near Postmasburg awarded to Grinkaker-LTA’s Civil Engineering division has given that company a foothold in the burgeoning new market.

The Redstone Concentrated Solar Thermal (CSP) power plant project (pictured), the largest investment so far in terms of the South African Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP), has Saudi Arabian and Chinese lead investors. It was ACWA Power and SEPCOIII Electric Power Construction Limited which chose Grinaker-LTA for the work, which includes constructing several structures for the thermal power plant for steam generation and pumps for molten salt. Tanks for hot and cold salt, water treatment, effluent collection and fire protection are further elements to the scope of work.

The concentrated solar thermal power plant is equipped with a molten-salt central receiver and the 100MW Redstone CSP plant is designed to have 12 hours of full-load energy storage. It will deliver electricity supply to more than 200 000 homes during peak demand periods. Commercial operation is set to begin towards the end of 2023.

Local artisans have built telescopes for a radio telescope array project in the Northern Cape. Drawn from the town of Carnarvon, the construction team grew to 20 at one point and has increased the skill levels of its members considerably.

The 350-dish HERA project is led by the US National Science Foundation with the South Africa Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO) acting as the local partner, responsible for systems engineering and construction, among other duties. The Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array (HERA) is gathering data from a time in history further away from the present time than has ever been explored. The project should be complete in 2022 but data continues to be collected while construction continues. The HERA is a separate project to the much bigger Square Kilometre Array (SKA), which is under construction nearby.

The construction timeline of the technically demanding and scientifically advanced SKA project is eight years, giving ample opportunity for specialist engineers to deploy their skills.

International teams, including