OVERVIEW
Engineering Engineers are making the switch to renewable energy possible. SECTOR INSIGHT Pay-for-use models make new technologies more accessible.
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he Redstone Concentrated Solar Thermal (CSP) power plant project (pictured) is the largest investment so far in terms of the South African Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP). The large undertaking, located near Postmasburg in the Northern Cape, has also given Grinaker-LTA’s Civil Engineering division a substantial foothold in one of South Africa’s fastest-growing economic sectors, renewable energy. Many South African engineering concerns are filling their order books with renewable energy infrastructure orders as the country aims to generate more power from solar, hydro-electric and wind plants and fit more rooftop solar panels to houses and businesses. Some of the key aspects which Grinaker-LTA was responsible for included hot and cold storage tank bases, civil works, the steam generation structure and the molten salt pump towers. The 100MW plant is the first project-financed CSP with molten-salt-central receiver in the world. ACWA Power, a Saudi developer, investor and operator of power generation plants, and Chinese engineering company SEPCOIII Electric Power Construction Limited, managed the project and they jointly appointed Grinkaker-LTA as the contractor to execute the construction of the project’s critical structures. SOUTH AFRICAN BUSINESS 2024
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Also in the Nor thern Cape, engineering skills are being expanded by new work associated with radio astronomy. Local artisans from the town of Carnarvon have built telescopes for a radio telescope array project, the 350-dish HERA project, which 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. At one point, the construction team grew to 20 and many news skills were learnt. When dairy company Clover decided to consolidate its national operations into just four plants, technological expertise was needed to make sure those factories were able to cope with greater demand. One such company was Energy Partners Refrigeration (EPR) who were contracted to tackle a number of issues, including increased power requirements to higher refrigeration load as well as increased steam demand and pressure requirements. The upgrade of the cooling structure featured the installation of a new 10MW ammonia system and 16% of all the electricity used by the new system is generated by solar PV. An innovative aspect of PHOTO: Grinaker-LTA
