South African black-owned development company Momentous Energy has launched its first solar energy farm, RustMo1 Solar Farm in North West Province of South Africa.

Located about 22km from the city of Rustenburg, the 7MW solar photovoltaic (PV) power generation project comprises installation of 11 inverters and 29 808 photovoltaic solar modules as well as a step up transformer to connect to the 88kV substation.

Momentous was awarded the project in December 2011 as a part of Department of Energy (DoE) Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Program.

RustMo1 Solar Farm, meanwhile, will produce 244,643MWh of energy over the 20 year contract period procured by Eskom grid after it commences operation scheduled in November 2013.

The Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) has funded the project through Broad Based BEE equity funding.

Currently, RustMo1 is being managed by Momentous Operations Services, while German developer juwi Holding secured the
engineering contractor for the project.