The French petroleum and energy company TotalEnergies announced December 15 that it is ready to begin construction on a 216-megawatt solar plant with battery storage capabilities in South Africa. The facility should be operational in 2025.

According to Reuters, the project achieved financial close December 14.

TotalEnergies owns 35% of the consortium that is developing the project. The remaining 65% is held by Hydra Storage Holding (35%) and Reatile Renewables (30%).

The senior vice president of renewables at TotalEnergies, Vincent Stoquart, said that the venue will be made up of a solar plant as well as a 500-megawatt-hour battery storage system. The hybrid renewables plant will be able to continuously supply green electricity to South Africa’s power grid even after the sun sets.

"This project will not only contribute to the country's energy transition but also to strengthening the resilience of its power system," Stoquart said.

The South African public utility organization Eskom said that each megawatt can power 650 homes on average, meaning that TotalEnergies’ plant will be able to provide electricity to 140,000 households.

To date, 90 renewable energy projects have been completed and begun operations in South Africa, adding 6,180 MW of capacity to the country’s power grid. This makes up about 25% of the nation’s demand said energy minister Gwede Mantashe in a statement written December 14. Nine of those projects representing over 1,000 MW are currently under construction.