JA Solar to Supply Modules for Teraco's 120-MW Sediba Solar Plant

• JA Solar is the exclusive module supplier for Teraco's 120-MW Sediba solar project in Parys, in South Africa's Free State.
• The data center operator owns the plant and will wheel its output over Eskom and municipal grids to its facilities.
• JA says operation starts by end-2026; Teraco's own page gives completion by the first quarter of 2027.

JA Solar has been selected as the exclusive module supplier for Teraco's 120-MW Sediba solar project in Parys, in South Africa's Free State province, the Chinese solar panel manufacturer said in a statement on Nov. 12. It will supply n-type modules to a utility-scale solar plant owned by Teraco, a data center operator.

JA did not name the module model, its wattage, the number of panels or the value of the order. It said it was chosen after technical evaluation and testing. Teraco's sustainability page lists 235,000 bifacial panels on 464 hectares. Teraco developed the project with juwi and Subsolar and appointed juwi to design it and manage procurement, construction and commissioning. A green loan finances the build, the company said in February 2024, when it secured a grid capacity allocation from Eskom.

Sediba will feed the national grid. Teraco will then wheel the energy over Eskom and municipal networks to its data centers in Ekurhuleni and Cape Town, and it is upgrading Eskom transmission equipment so the power can flow, it said when construction started in November 2024. The energy regulator NERSA registered 2,045 MW of new solar capacity in July to September 2026 alone, according to a Nov. 5 statement.

The plant in numbers

• 120 MW of solar on 464 hectares, with 235,000 bifacial panels, according to Teraco.
• More than 354,000 MWh a year expected once operational, up from the 338,000 MWh Teraco gave in February 2024.
• 33.7% implied capacity factor: 354,000 MWh divided by 120 MW times 8,760 hours (list.solar calculation).
• About 40 MW of average output over a year, the same as the 40 MW of critical power planned for Teraco's JB7 data center (list.solar calculation).
• 2,045 MW of solar PV in 139 of the 144 generation facilities NERSA registered in July to September 2026.
• 50% of Teraco's energy use is to come from clean sources by 2027, and 100% by 2035.

Teraco, majority-owned by Digital Realty, calls Sediba a world first for a data center operator building its own solar generation at this scale. It has also signed wind power purchase agreements with NOA.

JA said Sediba is scheduled to begin operating by the end of 2026. Teraco's sustainability page lists completion by the first quarter of 2027.