A consortium led by TotalEnergies, alongside Hydra Storage Holding and Reatile Renewables, has inaugurated a hybrid renewable energy project in South Africa’s Northern Cape province.

Known as the Hydra project, the facility comprises a 216MW solar photovoltaic (PV) plant integrated with a 500MW-hour battery energy storage system (BESS).

The project is designed to supply 75MW of dispatchable renewable electricity to the national grid under a 20-year power purchase agreement with Eskom.

According to the companies involved, this equates to the delivery of more than 400GW-hours of electricity per year, which they estimate is equal to the annual consumption of approximately 200,000 households in South Africa.

TotalEnergies Southern Africa managing director Magali Pailhé said: “We are delighted, together with our partners Reatile Renewables and Hydra Storage Holding, to bring the Hydra project into operation.

“It enables us to supply dispatchable renewable power to the South African grid, thereby strengthening the country’s energy security while decarbonising its electricity generation.

“This project reinforces our renewable production capacity in South Africa, the continent’s largest power market in terms of electricity consumption.” 

The Hydra project was developed by a consortium, with TotalEnergies and Hydra Storage each holding a 35% stake, and Reatile Renewables holding 30%.

It forms part of South Africa's Risk Mitigation Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme, which was initiated by the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy.

The programme is also part of the nation’s Just Energy Transition initiative aimed at decarbonising the economy through renewable energy sources.

TotalEnergies recently secured around €440m ($501.6m) in debt financing for 11 BESS projects in Germany, with a total combined capacity of 789MW.