South Africa
102 Rivonia Road Tower 2 EY Building, Johannesburg
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The plant
The Tom Burke solar plant
The Tom Burke solar plant, which is located in South Africa’s Limpopo province, has an installed capacity of 66 MW and can generate up to 122 GWh per year. That output is the equivalent of the annual consumption needs of around 38,000 South African households and it avoids the emission of over 111,000 tons of CO2 into the atmosphere each year. Tom Burke was our first large-scale solar project and is the first plant in South Africa to use thin-film photovoltaic panels.
Tecnology
Solar
Status
In operation
Operational capacity
66 MW
Energy production
122 GWh
CO2 emissions avoided
111,000 metric tons per year
Energy needs met
38,000 households each year
Timeline
Milestones
National Key Point
Tom Burke is the only one of our plants to hold National Key Point status. This is because it is a strategic project for energy security in the province of Limpopo, where it supplies electricity to nine villages. That’s the reason why we held an event to honor the importance of our first large-scale solar project and the first thin film photovoltaic panels in South Africa.
Impact on the local communities
The Tom Burke solar plant is located few kilometers from the border between South Africa and Botswana, and here we are working with the NGO Mothers2Mothers (M2M) on an education and prevention program for young mothers and pregnant women.
The collaboration with Mothers2Mothers is a tangible example of the effectiveness of the Creating Shared Value model, a distinctive trait of Enel Green Power wherever we work in the world.
The Ability to Share
The value of every Enel Green Power plant is not only measured in terms of its renewable installed capacity.
The 66 MW Tom Burke solar plant is a great example of EGP’s engineering ability and effectiveness, but that’s not all. The mentoring and education program run by Mothers2Mothers has involved more than 2,000 women.
We’ve not only brought our technology to the Limpopo province: we’ve also brought our ability to share the needs and hopes of the local population by collaborating to improve their social, economic and health conditions.
Partnerships
The plant is supported by a 20-year power supply agreement with the South African utility Eskom. This is part of the South African government’s Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP) tender, which awarded the project to the Enel Group.