{"id":389370,"date":"2026-08-21T19:43:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T19:43:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/389370\/"},"modified":"2026-08-21T19:43:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T19:43:15","slug":"french-firm-switches-on-africas-largest-renewable-energy-storage-plant-to-power-200k-houses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/389370\/","title":{"rendered":"French Firm Switches On Africa&#8217;s Largest Renewable Energy\/Storage Plant to Power 200K Houses"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>        <img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-240263\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/TotalEnergies-Hydra-Project-credit-released-1024x478.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"696\" height=\"325\"  \/>TotalEnergies Hydra Project \u2013 credit, released<\/p>\n<p>French energy supermajor TotalEnergies recently inaugurated the largest hybrid renewable energy project in Africa that will generate 400 gigawatt-hours of electricity in South Africa.<\/p>\n<p>Located in the Northern Cape province the Hydra Project combines a 216-MW solar photovoltaic plant with a 500 MWh battery energy storage system.<\/p>\n<p>Developed and built with partners Hydra Storage Holding and Reatile Renewables, the facility will supply 75 MW of renewable electricity to the national grid continuously between 5:00 a.m. and 9:30 p.m., under a 20-year power purchase agreement.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are delighted, together with our partners Reatile Renewables and Hydra Storage Holding, to bring the Hydra project into operation,\u201d stated Magali Pailh\u00e9, Managing Director of TotalEnergies Southern Africa.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt enables us to supply dispatchable renewable power to the South African grid, thereby strengthening the country\u2019s energy security while decarbonizing its electricity generation. This project reinforces our renewable production capacity in South Africa, the continent\u2019s largest power market in terms of electricity consumption.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Joint venture partner Hydra Storage Holding is a South African renewable energy developer and independent power producer that has delivered more than 1 GW of large and medium-scale renewable energy projects across South Africa.<\/p>\n<p>NEW RENEWABLES: <a title=\"USA\u2019s Largest Renewable Project Comes Online\u2013With More Power Than the Hoover Dam\" href=\"https:\/\/www.goodnewsnetwork.org\/usas-largest-renewable-project-comes-online-with-more-power-than-the-hoover-dam\/\" rel=\"bookmark nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">USA\u2019s Largest Renewable Project Comes Online\u2013With More Power Than the Hoover Dam<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The Hydra Project means Total, one of the world\u2019s largest distributed oil, energy, and utility companies, now manages just under 36 GW of gross renewable power generation capacity.<\/p>\n<p>Hydra will be the largest combined renewables\/storage project on the continent, at least until Egypt <a href=\"https:\/\/www.goodnewsnetwork.org\/the-sunniest-windiest-country-announces-renewables-project-to-power-6-million-homes\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">completes its truly colossal joint venture<\/a> along the Red Sea coast signed in March.<\/p>\n<p>ALSO CHECK OUT: <a title=\"Wind Farms in Africa Aim To Power New Era of Clean Reliable Energy While Saving a Billion Tons of CO2\" href=\"https:\/\/www.goodnewsnetwork.org\/wind-farms-in-africa-aim-for-new-era-of-clean-energy-saving-billion-tons-of-co2\/\" rel=\"bookmark nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Wind Farms in Africa Aim To Power New Era of Clean Reliable Energy While Saving a Billion Tons of CO2<\/a><\/p>\n<p>To be developed in a partnership between the Egyptian firm Orascom Construction, French utility Engie, and Japanese conglomerate Toyota Tsusho, the complex is planned to include 6,000 megawatts of solar, wind, and battery capacity.<\/p>\n<p>The largest renewable energy generation project is also found in Egypt, called the Benben Solar Park, which switched on 1.8 gigawatts of solar power in 2019.<\/p>\n<p>SHARE This Sunny News For South African Energy On Social Media\u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TotalEnergies Hydra Project \u2013 credit, released French energy supermajor TotalEnergies recently inaugurated the largest hybrid renewable energy project&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":389371,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5],"tags":[63,83,185980,1982,7884,658,7428,19225,131,128691],"class_list":["post-389370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-africa","tag-africa","tag-business","tag-corporations","tag-egypt","tag-electricity","tag-france","tag-renewable-energy","tag-solar","tag-south-africa","tag-success"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@africa\/117135213598778505","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=389370"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389370\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/389371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=389370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=389370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=389370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}