Sola Group, the company responsible for South Africa’s biggest wheeling project, the Selemela Solar Park outside Lichtenburg in the North West, believes the project will alleviate pressure from the national grid as the country continues to grapple with ongoing power supply challenges.

Wheeling is the delivery of energy from a generator to an end-user located in another area through the use of an existing distribution or transmission network, according to Eskom.

Sola Group says apart from bringing some relief to the power supply, their other objective was to contribute positively to the economy by creating jobs.

Managing Director for Commercial, Jonathan Skeen says, “This project has created about 700 work opportunities just within the local community. So in doing the construction of the site, we have brought in completely local work to build this site. We are creating jobs in the operation phase as well.”

“I think as part of the broader efforts because whenever we build these projects, we like to enable local businesses, we procure from local businesses.”

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