The Department of Mineral Resources and Energy in South Africa has increased the overall capacity of the country's Renewable Energy Independent Power Producers Procurement Programme (REIPPPP) window 6 to 4.2 GW, without changing 1 GW capacity limit for solar PV.
Under the amended tender round, wind energy capacity has been increased to 3.2 GW from 1.6 GW announced originally in the April 2022 announcement (see South Africa: 2.6 GW REIPPPP Tender Round 6).
As per the revised auction timeline, interested bidders can register for the same till September 23, 2022 and submit final bids till October 3, 2022.
Even as the department has increased the aggregate capacity of the auction, it is still less than 5.2 GW that the South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said it will be scaled up to back in July 2022 (see South Africa Leans On RE To Improve Power Supply).
In a related news from South Africa, African Rainbow Energy and Power (AREP) that holds 40% stake in the Sola Group has achieved financial closure for 200 MW solar capacity that's contracted under a power purchase agreement (PPA) with Tronox Mineral Sands.