One of the top luxury lifestyle estates in South Africa, Val de Vie, is planning to build its own solar power plant with 3 600 photovoltaic (PV) modules to generate 1 MV of electricity.
The estate is home to a few neighbourhoods including, the Polo Village, the Gentleman’s Estate, Pearl Valley, the River Club, the Reserve, the Vines, the Acres, and the Evergreen Val de Vie retirement village.
The estate has recently announced that it is now looking to start the journey of providing its own power through a new green energy project and an environmental impact assessment (EIA) process for the proposed solar power plant has since been launched as per MyBroadband.
The plant will have a 15 475 square meter (1.5 hectare) footprint with the ability to generate approximately 1 MV (megavolt) alternating current (AC). The 1 MV is a unit of electromotive force that equals to one million volts of electricity. It will feed its generated power into the estate’s private electricity network, with additional generation being stored in batteries as per IOL. The estate said there will be no electricity that will be exported to the existing Drakenstein Kliprug substation or any nearby Eskom networks.
The reserved site for this solar plant is located inside the Val de Vie Estate, adjacent to the Waste Water Treatment Works. Electrical protection, control, and communication will be installed in the private Val de Vie switching station with the solar power plant including underground cables and a mini substation.
The estate said in times when generation from the solar plant is not possible due to weather conditions or maintenance, the electrical supply will be obtained from the existing private Val de Vie switching station.
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Picture: Cape {town) Etc gallery