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South African
construction firm, Group Five, may construct a 5 billion rand solar
plant to supply power utility, Eskom, with first power seen in two
years, a company official said on Tuesday.

“We hope to be
producing power in 2013, when it starts to come on line,” Greg Heale,
director of engineering and construction, told Reuters on the sidelines
of an African refinery conference.

He later said the
project would supply energy to power utility, Eskom, and not mining
firms, and would go ahead only if it was selected as part of South
Africa’s renewable energy procurement process.

Mr. Heale said
Group Five, South Africa’s fourth-largest construction firm, is
expected to conclude all contractual arrangements, including off-take
agreements, within the next nine months.

The project, to be
located in the sun-drenched Northern Cape province, is hopefully the
first of a number of phases that could be constructed on the site,
eventually producing up to 450 MW, Mr. Heale said.

Africa’s largest
economy is rapidly moving away from a reliance on coal, which supplies
more than 90 per cent of the country’s energy needs, to energy sources
such as solar, wind, and nuclear.

South Africa could
produce its first solar power from a proposed $21 billion dollar solar
park by 2012, eventually supplying 5,000 MW of power.

The country wants
to accelerate its renewable energy programme to meet a target of 10,000
gigawatt hours by 2013. Shares in Group Five traded 0.65 per cent
higher at 26.47 rand by 1059 GMT, slightly outpacing a 0.5 per cent
firmer JSE all-Share index.

Last month, Group
Five said diluted headline EPS for the six months to end-December fell
21 percent to 198 cents, compared with 249 cents in the same period a
year earlier. The group said its total secured construction order book
stood at 9.3 billion rand, little changed from the end of June.

The South African
construction industry, which avoided the worst of the global economic
crisis due to big projects ahead of the 2010 World Cup, is now having
difficulty finding new projects as both the government and the private
sector hold back on spending.

The industry is also the target of a sweeping bid-rigging probe by competition authorities.

Reuters