Expansion of solar energy
in Bokpoort, South Africa
Clean Energy & Social Justice
With the solar energy project in Bokpoort, electricity is generated from solar energy instead of fossil fuels. This saves around 200,000 tons of carbon emissions annually.
PROJECT FACTS
LOCATION:
Bokpoort, South Africa
PROJECT START:
2017
PROJECT DEVELOPER:
South Pole Carbon Asset Management Ltd.
EXTERNAL VERIFIER:
Carbon Check (Pty) Ltd., TÜV NORD CERT GmbH
QUALITY STANDARDS:
Certified Emission Reduction (CER)
Gold Standard VER (GS VER)
ANNUAL CO2-REDUCTION:
approx. 200.000 t CO2
PROJECT DOCUMENTATION:
https://registry.goldstandard.org/projects/details/1380
ProjeCt BENEFITS
- The project saves an average of 200,000 tons of carbon emissions per year
- Free electricity for a health center in Bugoye
- Supporting the farming initiatives of Black Economic Empowerment (BEE)
- Reduction of air pollution, better living conditions
- Less dependence on fossil fuels
- Mitigating the negative effects of coal mining
- Creation of more than 50 jobs
- The regional economy benefits from the expansion of the associated infrastructure
- 10% of the project income goes into a "Black Empowerment" program
- Financing of a ventilator for the corona treatment station in Bwera hospital
Project background
The project in northern South Africa reduces carbon emissions by generating electricity from solar energy instead of fossil fuels. It improves the energy supply and thus the living conditions of many people in the region.
In South Africa's national power grid, 90% electricity flows from coal-fired power plants. The result is immense greenhouse gas and pollutant emissions. The new power plant uses the free energy of the sun to generate clean, safe electricity.
The system with parabolic mirrors has a maximum total output of 50 megawatts. In combination with a modern storage system that can deliver energy for up to nine hours, the system produces 224 gigawatt hours of renewable electricity per year.
How does climate action with solar energy work?
Since energy is generated from solar cells without fossil fuels, it is considered emission-free. The expansion of renewable energy generation is essential in order to stop global warming and to secure the energy supply in the long term.
The amount of emissions saved in a solar energy project is calculated using the so-called baseline method: how much carbon emissions would the same amount of energy cause with the usual electricity mix in the region?
Contribution to the UN sustainability goals
Project Quality standards
Clean Development Mechanism (CDM)
The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) was launched as part of the Kyoto Protocol of 1997. The CDM can not only be used for voluntary offsetting of emissions, but also for state climate action programs. Therefore, governments, companies and private individuals alike can acquire the certified emission credits from CDM projects (= Certified Emission Reductions, CERs) and use them for their respective climate action purposes.
Gold Standard
The Gold Standard was developed in 2003 by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and more than 20 other international environmental organisations. The standard is administered by the non-profit Gold Standard Foundation based in Switzerland. Gold Standard projects are primarily characterized by the fact that, in addition to reducing carbon emissions, they also contribute to sustainable development in the respective project region, i.e. also bring social added value in addition to climate action.
