Five Pretoria hospitals have been chosen for a major roof-top solar project to power their infrastructure and reduce the burden on the national grid, as load-shedding persists nationwide.

These hospitals are the George Mukhari, Laudium, Mamelodi, Tshwane and Steve Biko hospitals.

Finance and e-government MEC Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko announced this week that the roof-top solar panel project was one of the provincial government’s major integrated green energy initiatives expected to reach a financial close this year.

“It will enable construction to start on this important initiative which entails installing solar panels on rooftops of provincial government buildings to meet each facility’s electricity consumption.”

Nkomo-Ralehoko said this development represents a significant milestone for the government.

“The successful financing and implementation of the Rooftop Solar PV, Phase 1 this year will lead to 11 provincial hospitals harnessing close to 10MW of their electrical power from rooftop solar PVs.”

She said this would alleviate the burden on the national grid and the provincial government would be supporting the objectives of the Gauteng Integrated Green Energy Strategy.

The initiative is one of the projects of the Gauteng Infrastructure Financing Agency (GIFA), which is a government component of the provincial treasury.

The agency is responsible for sourcing alternative funding for strategic infrastructure projects in the province.

Nkomo-Ralehoko said an agreement would be signed soon between the South African National Space Agency (Sansa), and a private party.

Sansa will be acquiring operating space as the anchor tenant at the Innovation Hub’s Enterprise Building 3.

“This is a significant milestone in that it will bring the much-needed confidence to the Innovation Hub to attract smart industries, green economy companies and high-value-added service industries to take up occupancy within the hub.”

Nkomo-Ralehoko said in line with the provincial government’s commitment to supporting the revival and reinvention of the economies of the Southern and Western Corridors, GIFA had also completed the feasibility study and business case of the Sedibeng fresh produce market.

“This entails the refurbishment of the existing market, modernising the facility, increasing its size and introducing an agro-processing component.”

She said the R500m project would create approximately 6 000 direct and indirect job opportunities and positively impact the region’s GDP.

“GIFA and the municipalities are working with the national treasury to deliver this project as a public-private partnership, whereby the private party will finance, build and operate the fresh produce market,” Nkomo-Ralehoko said.