SolarAfrica completes financial close on 342MW SunCentral first phase

SolarAfrica broke ground at SunCentral in June 2024 and has now closed financing on all three facilities in a 342MW first phase between Hanover and De Aar. The R1.35 billion transmission substation built alongside them is what allows a single site to sell to many buyers rather than one.

Construction began at SunCentral in June 2024, on a site between Hanover and De Aar in the Northern Cape that SolarAfrica intends to build out to 1GW.

Financial close on the first 114MW facility followed at the end of that year, funded to R1.8 billion. SunCentral 2 closed in February 2026 at R1.5 billion. SunCentral 3, the third and final facility of the first phase, closed in August on funding from RMB and Investec Bank, completing 342MW across eighteen months and roughly R5 billion for the development as a whole.

Between those closes the company completed a Main Transmission Substation at a cost of R1.35 billion, and that substation is what makes the commercial model work, because it connects the generation to the national grid in a way that allows a single site to wheel power to many separate offtakers instead of one dedicated consumer.

The buyers span automotive, mining, data centres, manufacturing, retail and corporate parks.

“With financial close now achieved across the final part of Phase 1, our focus is fixed firmly on delivery,” said chief executive David McDonald. “We are now significantly closer to supplying businesses with affordable, clean energy at scale.”

SunCentral 1 reached the threshold of commercial operation in late August, with first power from the phase expected in the second half of this year.

Development on Phase 2 has begun with SunCentral 4, and the company expects later phases to pair solar with battery storage so supply extends beyond daylight hours.

At 342MW the first phase alone is roughly double the 175.26MW of Solar Capital De Aar, currently South Africa’s largest solar farm.

“South African businesses are increasingly looking for long-term energy certainty, both in security of supply and cost savings,” McDonald said. “The market demand is definitely there, and we are continuing to build the infrastructure needed to meet it.”