A windy success for a small South African community
The Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) has acknowledged that South Africa continues to be the number one wind power market in Africa with 2.5GW of cumulative wind power capacity installed in the country. This is supported by the national Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP).
This feature article was originally published in The Global Power & Energy Elites 2022
The Wesley-Ciskei Wind Energy Facility near the small towns of Wesley, Gcinisa and Hamburg in South Africa’s Eastern Cape province marks several ‘firsts’ for renewable energy development in the country.
This project is renewable energy developer and operator EDF Renewables South Africa’s fourth wind project in the region. It entered commercial operation in August 2021 – one month ahead of schedule despite working through the challenges of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The 34.5MW wind farm was selected as part of the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP) Bid Window 4 in June 2015. A power purchase agreement (PPA) was concluded by EDF Renewables with the national utility Eskom in April 2018, when financial closure was also reached on the project – the first of the Round 4 projects to do so.
Construction of the wind farm then commenced in September 2019 and the majority of the construction works were undertaken during COVID-19 restrictions, including a maximum lockdown when all construction activities had to cease for eight weeks. Upon reopening, strict health and safety protocols had to be introduced, focused on a range of measures to combat the spread of the virus.
Technology
The wind farm is comprised of ten Vestas V126-3.45 turbines. The technology employed includes some of the largest turbines installed in South Africa, with a hub height of 117m and each blade 63m long to stand 180m tall.
“It was a big transportation challenge to navigate the South African road network with extremely heavy turbine components and blades of up to 63m in length,” says EDF Renewables Project Manager, Carl Wlotzka.
The delivery to the site and installation was completed in just two months.
Read the full project feature here
