Enertronica Santerno S.p.A. (“Enertronica Santerno” or “Company”), listed on the AIM Italia market, a multilateral trading system organised and managed by Borsa Italiana S.p.A. (“AIM Italia”), has announced the renewal by one of the key players operating in the South African renewable energy sector of the operation and maintenance and components supply agreement with Enertronica Santerno.
The agreement, which relates to an 80.65 MW photovoltaic plant located in the Northern Cape region of South Africa, is worth around Euro 1.2 mln (around Euro 0.24 per annum).
In signing this agreement, the Enertronica Group has added another plant to those for which maintenance is provided in South Africa, reaching a total of five plants and total capacity of 391 MW. Renewal of the business partnership in South Africa highlights the commitment of Enertronica Santerno to investing in the country, also by focusing on local human resources, in order to exploit the enormous potential for
development that solar energy offers in that area.
According to the Intersolar Solarize Africa Market Report 2020 (which analyses the market situation in sixteen African countries), Africa offers great potential for photovoltaic energy that has so far been exploited to a very limited extent. Electrification and renewable energies are among the priorities on the political
agenda of many African countries. However, the effective installation rates have remained extremely low: with around 6.6 GW, Africa accounted for around just one percent of the photovoltaic power installed worldwide at the end of 2019.
The report describes four possible scenarios for future development:
- the “Policy-driven” and “Business as usual” ones, based on the current expansion objectives of the various countries and with a planned cumulative photovoltaic power of around 70 GW in 2030;
- the “Solarize Africa Accelerated” one, which is considered the most likely, according to which photovoltaic power in Africa will develop in a similar manner to other parts of the world, with 170 GW of installed power by 2030;
- the fourth scenario, called the “Solarize Africa Paradigm Shift”, based on the current situation of turmoil and on African markets partially skipping the fossil fuels phase. Installed photovoltaic power is thus combined with the objectives of the Paris Climate Agreement. With cumulative installed
power of 600 GW by 2030, this scenario has Africa as a major region for photovoltaic power in the future.
