At Parys, Ilikwa Solar’s second phase adds 27MW for South African business
Mainstream South Africa has reached financial close on a 27MW second phase at Ilikwa Solar in the Free State, with Investec again holding 30%, and the extension will take the plant to 77MW for businesses buying on five to 10-year contracts when it starts operating in late 2027.
Near Parys in the Free State, Mainstream South Africa has reached financial close on Ilikwa Phase 2, a 27MW extension of Ilikwa Solar that will take the plant to 77MW when it reaches commercial operation, expected in the fourth quarter of 2027, and the close comes four months after the first 50MW began supplying businesses in July.
Investec Bank Limited is financing the second phase and will hold 30% of it alongside Mainstream’s 70%, the same split as the first, and Martin Meyer, Head of Energy and Infrastructure Finance at Investec, said that “our bespoke financing solution for Ilikwa Phase 1 and 2 has enabled us to build a strong partnership with Mainstream”.
Like the first phase, the extension will sell to several private commercial and industrial customers on power purchase agreements of between five and 10 years, which Mainstream offers through its own NERSA-licensed electricity trading business, and the company said a utility-scale battery energy storage system for Ilikwa is under consideration for 2027. Hein Reyneke, General Manager of Mainstream South Africa, said the close showed “the growing demand for flexible renewable energy solutions from private customers”, adding that Mainstream would keep supplying “clean, competitively priced power to South African businesses”.
Once running, the second phase is expected to produce about 75GWh a year, enough for the equivalent of about 20,000 homes by Mainstream’s estimate, while avoiding about 72,000 tonnes of CO₂ annually.
Half of the first phase is bought by EXSA, one of South Africa’s first licensed electricity traders, which reached commercial operation on its 25MW allocation in September under a long-term power purchase agreement with Mainstream and wheels the electricity to its own business customers. Ilikwa, the trader’s third solar site after two in the Western Cape, is expected to give it more than 70GWh a year, and its Chief Commercial Officer, Retief Ferreira, linked the offtake to growing appetite among South African businesses for flexible, shorter-term supply agreements.
Mainstream brought the first 50MW into commercial operation in July after 21 months of construction, from more than 101,000 PV modules expected to produce more than 140GWh a year, and its South African business now counts 175MW of operating and in-construction assets and a development pipeline of about 11.9GW.
Construction of the second phase is expected to extend the employment the first created, when more than 2,600 people were working at the peak, most of them recruited from neighbouring communities including Tumahole and Schonkenville, and the project’s community programmes include a bursary scheme for local young people.
