Hungary’s Ganz Engineering and Energetic Machinery, part of Rosatom’s machine engineering division Atomenergomash, and its South African partner Blue World Power and Energy Services have signed a contract to build a small hydroelectric project at Mpompomo Falls, near Barberton in Mpumalanga, South Africa. Ganz has developed a containerised hydropower plant which can be deployed quickly without the need for dams.
“This is our first contract with Blue World Power and Energy Services, with a scope to install a low-yield (under 1MW) hydroelectric power plant in South Africa”, Rosatom International Network president Alexander Merten said. “This is just the beginning of our envisaged large-scale cooperation programme in the field of small-scale hydropower engineering in Central and South African countries”.
Containers come with a 12 year warranty and are expected to have an operational lifetime of around 30 years. The facility is controlled and monitored remotely. According to Rosatom, a 1MW plant with a capacity factor of 93% would have an estimated breakeven period of three years in Africa. Ganz began development of the container technology in 2013.
