South Africa invests in concentrated solar power

Sentinel-2 MSI acquired on 03 May 2016 at 08:06:12 UTC
Sentinel-1 CSAR IW acquired on 04 November 2019 from 03:51:31 to 03:51:56 UTC
Sentinel-2 MSI acquired on 04 November 2019 at 08:11:21 UTC
Sentinel-3 OLCI FR & SLSTR RBT acquired on 04 November 2019 at 08:13:30 UTC
Sentinel-3 OLCI FR acquired on 08 November 2019 at 08:09:46 UTC
Author(s): Sentinel Vision team, VisioTerra, France - svp@visioterra.fr
Keyword(s): Renewable energy, infrastructure, solar power, open-pit mine, RSA, South Africa
Fig. 1 - S3 SLSTR (04.11.2019) - S5,S3,S2 colour composite - Kathu solar park is located in the Northern Cape province of RSA.
2D view
Fig. 2 - S3 OLCI (04.11.2019) - 10,6,3 natural colour - It lies in the warm Kalahari Desert, one of the sunniest places in the world.
2D view
Fig. 3 - S2 (03.05.2016) - 4,3,2 natural colour - Kathu sits next to some of the world's most biggest iron open pit mines.
2D animation 2D view
Fig. 4 - S1 (02.11.2019) - vv,vh,vv colour composite - This "5 km² mirror" uses 384 000 of 4 m-high parabolic reflectors.
2D view
South Africa is still heavily dependant on coal from which it produces 80% of its electricity.
Fig. 5 - S2 (04.11.2019) - 4,3,2 natural colour - It has a capacity of 100 MW and full-load molten storage capacity of 4.5 hours.
2D view
This parabolic-trough system doesn't focus the sunlight into a solar power tower but into a nearby absorber pipe.
The views expressed herein can in no way be taken to reflect the official opinion of the European Space Agency or the European Union.
Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2024, processed by VisioTerra.
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