{"id":91264,"date":"2026-05-28T14:56:03","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T14:56:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/?p=91264"},"modified":"2026-05-28T14:56:05","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T14:56:05","slug":"outlier-renew-17-wheeling-in-the-cape","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/2026\/05\/28\/outlier-renew-17-wheeling-in-the-cape\/","title":{"rendered":"Outlier Renew #17:\u00a0Wheeling in the Cape"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The Outlier moved our base from Johannesburg to Cape Town at the end of March and it\u2019s interesting how different things are in these two cities. In Joburg, power outages were an issue for us. In Cape Town they\u2019re not (so far). In Joburg, businesses are investing in massive solar installations to secure energy supply. They are also doing that in Cape Town, but the difference here is that the city is facilitating the wheeling of renewable energy through the municipal grid. There\u2019s more about that below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But now for some charts. Ember, a think tank that produces very useful datasets on global electricity generation, recently released its\u00a0Global Electricity Review 2026<\/a>\u00a0(link is to a PDF). Ember\u2019s yearly data shows that Egypt generated more electricity than South Africa in 2025. South Africa has held the number one spot on the continent since at least 2015 (when Ember\u2019s data starts).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Electricity generated in South Africa in terawatt hours (TWh) has decreased by about 3% since 2015, according to Ember\u2019s data. Egypt\u2019s has increased by 35% in comparison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Egypt\u2019s growth has been fuelled largely by fossil fuels, mostly gas. Its renewable electricity share has grown from 8% to 12% over the past decade. Hydro power from the Aswan Dam has been the main source of renewable electricity, but last year wind and solar generated slightly more than hydro.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Africa is a different story. Renewables grew to 13.6% of the electricity mix in 2025 from 2.6% in 2015. In terawatt-hours, it\u2019s an increase from 6.5TWh in 2015 to 33TWh in 2025. However, coal generation has fallen by 29.8TWh over the decade, which means it looks like renewables have displaced coal rather than meeting new demand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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RENEWABLE PIN-UP<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Redefine Properties\u2019 solar installation on the Mall of the South, Johannesburg (Photo: Supplied)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Redefine Properties announced this month that it has installed\u00a062MW of solar PV<\/a>\u00a0since 2015. The picture above shows the roof of the Mall of the South in Johannesburg, one of 77 Redefine properties that have solar installations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vital statistics<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Redefine Properties<\/strong>
First solar installation:\u00a02015<\/strong>
Properties with solar:\u00a077<\/strong>
Total solar panels installed:\u00a0156,048<\/strong>
Area covered by solar panels:\u00a0360,053 m\u00b2<\/strong>
Annual production:\u00a0106,516,000 kWh<\/strong>
BESS (Battery Storage):\u00a01 operational system, with Phase 1 rollout of 20MWh approved and 5 projects underway<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Redefine Properties\u2019 largest solar plant is 7,014kW DC on the roof of the Massmart Distribution Centre in Cape Town. When it is commissioned, Redefine Properties says it will be able to wheel the power it generates to its buildings in Cape Town through the City of Cape Town\u2019s wheeling pilot [more on this below\u00a0\u2b07\ufe0f].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NEWS WRAP<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u26a1\ufe0f Electricity trader\u00a0Etana Energy<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0Growthpoint Properties<\/strong>\u00a0have started the first\u00a0pooled wheeling<\/strong>\u00a0project in the\u00a0City of Cape Town<\/strong>.\u00a0Pooled wheeling allocates electricity from remote generation sites to a portfolio of customers on a grid, matching supply and demand across the portfolio, rather than site by site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Boston Hydroelectric Plant, near Clarens in the Free State, which is co-owned by Serengeti Energy and Growthpoint, generates the electricity. Etana Energy is its exclusive offtaker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The electricity is wheeled across the Eskom network to Cape Town\u2019s municipal grid, where it is allocated to a pool of five Growthpoint properties \u2013\u00a036 Hans Strijdom foreshore building, Constantia Village Mall, Centennial Place in Century City, Montclare Place in Claremont and Newlands on Main.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Etana Energy acts as the single point of accountability, managing and settling variable electricity charges across the portfolio of customers. This simplifies billing for the municipality and customers, and gives customers access to competitively priced renewable electricity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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36 Hans Strijdom on Cape Town\u2019s Foreshore\u00a0<\/strong>is fully powered by renewable energy. Occupied by Ninety One, the office building sources 100% of its grid electricity through the pooled renewable allocation.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Timeline of wheeling in Cape Town<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

First pilot project (September 2023 \u2013 early 2025).<\/strong>\u00a0The pilot involved three traders (Enpower Trading, Etana Energy and Equites Fund Property), three generators (FairBridge Mall in Brackenfell, Constantia Shopping Mall, and Equites Property Fund in Parow Industria) and three offtakers (Shoprite head office in Brackenfell, Growthpoint Properties in the city Centre, and APF Portside in the city centre). 562,800kWh of renewable electricity was\u00a0wheeled during the pilot phase<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Full rollout (from March 2025).<\/strong>\u00a0In March 2025, the City of Cape Town officially announced the opening of Cape Town’s wheeling programme, promoting the\u00a0scaling up of power trading<\/a>\u00a0across the grid based on bilateral and multilateral trading agreements. By September 2025, the\u00a0total electricity wheeled had reached 861,162kWh<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2600\ufe0f Eskom has broken ground on a\u00a075MW solar project at its Lethabo coal plant in the Free State<\/a><\/strong>, a R1.2-billion investment expected to produce about 147GWh of electricity a year once fully operational. The project is the first in what Eskom describes as a pipeline of at least 2GW of renewable energy and storage projects to be developed during 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The utility has identified another 17 projects across its coal station footprint, with construction expected to begin by 2028. Together, these could deliver roughly 6GW of new capacity by 2030 at sites including Arnot, Duvha, Majuba, Komati and Kusile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The work falls under Eskom Green, a new subsidiary tasked with diversifying the utility’s generation mix away from coal as part of South Africa’s energy transition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2600\ufe0f Norsk Renewables<\/strong>\u00a0has agreed to sell the 315MW\u00a0Nyakallo solar and battery storage project<\/a>\u00a0in Limpopo to\u00a0SolarAfrica<\/strong>.\u00a0The project has reached key early-stage milestones, including grid connection, permitting and initial design.\u00a0Norsk Renewables will continue to support development, financing preparation and commercialisation activities. Financial close is expected to be reached in 2027 and it is expected to start supplying electricity to the grid in 2028. A combination of large anchor customers and energy traders is expected to buy the electricity generated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\ud83d\udca9 A $4-million development funding commitment from\u00a0Climate Investor Three’s SA-H2 Fund\u00a0<\/strong>will kick-start\u00a0South Africa\u2019s first waste-to-fuel facility<\/a>\u00a0in Gauteng’s Vaal Special Economic Zone. The project, developed by\u00a0Green eFuels Producers<\/strong>, will convert 90,000 tonnes of municipal sewage sludge annually \u2013 sourced from the Sebokeng Wastewater Treatment Works \u2013 into roughly 14,300 tonnes of green methanol, powered by 50MW of co-located solar and additional wind energy. Financial close is targeted for 2027. The target to start operating is 2029.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\ud83c\uddea\ud83c\uddf9 China\u2019s\u00a0Ming Yang Group<\/strong>\u00a0is set to invest\u00a0$14-billion in renewable energy projects<\/a>\u00a0in Ethiopia. The first phase involves a $7.47-billion investment to build 8.4GW of wind and solar electricity generation capacity in the South Omo, Afar and Somali regions. The second phase involves a $7.3-billion investment in green ammonia production, electricity transmission and the manufacturing of wind power equipment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

EVENTS<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\ud83d\udcbb Webinar<\/strong>: Creamer Media is hosting a webinar on embedding ESG (environmental, social and governance) in SA’s value chains on 17 June 2026.\u00a0Register here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":91266,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1388,1386,1380],"tags":[131,1459,421,40],"newsletter-post":[],"site":[],"class_list":["post-91264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-outlier-renew","category-publication","category-this-week-in-charts","tag-egypt","tag-redefine-properties","tag-solar","tag-south-africa"],"acf":{"big_number":"","big_number_caption":"","big_number_link":"","big_number_background":"","big_number_text_colour":"#000000","big_number_icon":false,"big_number_wide":"yes","featured_chart":false,"flourish_chart_id":"","flourish_sub_title":"","flourish_chart_width":"medium","is_newsletter_post":"No","post_style":"bc","show_on_front":"Yes","link_through":"Yes","chart_url":"","background_colour":"#0089AA","text_colour":"#FFFFFF"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91264"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91264\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":91270,"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91264\/revisions\/91270"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91264"},{"taxonomy":"newsletter-post","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newsletter-post?post=91264"},{"taxonomy":"site","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/site?post=91264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}