Franki's Vineyards News & Events

Franco Afrique Technologies (FAT), the owners of Franki’s Vineyards, a boutique wine estate situated between Malmesbury and Darling, have been selected to develop one of the first commercial Solar Photovoltaic Farms in South Africa.

After several years in preparation, the Dept. of Energy finally invited interested bidders to enter into a arduous selection process for the honour of joining a select group of independent power producers with the aim of supplementing Eskom generation capacity and lowering South Africa’s carbon footprint.

More than 400 developers from all over the world expressed interest and entered the bidding process. Considered one of the most professional and transparent evaluation processes of its type anywhere in the world, Ms. Dipuo Peters, the Minister of Energy, announced the list of successful bidders during a keynote session of the prestigious COP17 conference in Durban on 7 December 2011.

The SlimSun Swartland Solar Park, as the project co-developed and sponsored by FAT and Inspired Evolution (an International Greentech Fund) is known, was the first announced and one of only 28 successful candidates throughout the country.

The 5 MW project will has been installed on a portion of the bigger Eenboom farm within which Franki’s Vineyards operates and will generate sufficient green electricity to power a town the size of Darling.

Further plans for an additional expansion phase are currently under development. In addition, there are also plans afoot for a NETT ZERO wine range in the foreseeable future. Watch this space for more information and clarification about this exciting and groundbreaking initiative.