Wind turbine tower sections for the 140MW Kangnas Wind Farm, one of the Renewable Energy Industry Power Producer Procurement Programmes (REI4Ps) giant Bid Window 4 projects, are being manufactured locally, on Cape Town’s West Coast, in Atlantis.  This signals the recovery of the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) for Green Technologies, which according to Green Cape, has already attracted R680 million in green technology investments and has created over 300 jobs. It is expected that the zone will attract a further R3.7 billion of investment by renewable energy and other manufacturers, and nearly 3,000 jobs are expected to be created by 2030 if these investments are realised.
Manufacturing industries, in particular, stand to benefit from wind farms that are currently being constructed around the country.  Two of these large power generating plants, will be receiving their turbine tower sections from GRI, a Spanish wind tower manufacturer, which has invested R475 million to date, and was one of the first to see the benefits of locating in the Atlantis SEZ.  Even prior to designation of the SEZ, GRI had made the most of the City of Cape Town's available infrastructure and rapid land release and approvals process to land them on their chosen ground. 
GRI weathered the storm of the REI4P delays and were able to ramp up to full operations again after confirming contracts in BW4, which include Kangnas Wind Farm and Perdekraal East Wind Farm.  

“GRI's South African wind tower company is 25% owned by local Black shareholders, whilst their 250 or so employees have benefited from skills transfer, some seeing training and experience in Spain and USA, and bringing their skills back to the community,” explained Francis Jackson, SEZ Project Executive, GreenCape. 
The Atlantis Green Technology SEZ was a deliberate effort to create manufacturing, broadly in the green economy, and with specific opportunities in renewables. “Kangnas Wind Farm is the first REI4P power producer to receive towers manufactured by GRI, following the industry’s two year impasse, with the manufacturer’s full capacity dedicated to these projects,” explain Manie Kotze, Construction Project Manager for Kangnas Wind Farm.
Kangnas Wind Farm is situated in the Nama Khoi Municipal area, in the Northern Cape.  This Province is the recipient of the majority of IPP’s from the latest bid window, green lighted almost a year ago.

South Africa’s five largest renewable energy projects, measured in terms of investment, are all multi-billion rand wind farms that contribute a collective 645.71 megawatt (MW) to the grid. 
Together, SA's renewable energy projects contribute 3,773 MW, compared to the 43,485MW currently delivered by fossil fuels. This is according to information released by the the Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme to Parliament in March.

The existing investment in South Africa's sustainable energy projects totals R142 billion, almost five times what SA paid for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

And government this week signed contracts worth an additional R56bn, expected to add 2,300 MW of electricity to the national grid over the next five years, with 27 independent renewable energy power producers.

The average time for construction to completion of renewable energy projects is 1.9 years. 

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With over 40 utility-scale wind projects now announced in South Africa, and big wins expected in the upcoming Round 5, the wind landscape in South Africa is continuing to expand.
 
Do you want to get an overview of the current and planned wind projects in South Africa?
 
Download the Wind South Africa Project Map here 
 
For further information, please contact:
 
Amy Allebone-Salt, project director, New Energy Update, FCBI Energy
Email: allebone-salt@fc-bi.com ​

WindSim AS, the leading provider and pioneer of CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) based wind modelling software and services expanded its global operations with the opening of WindSim SSA (Pty) Ltd, a new subsidiary based in Cape Town, South Africa. WindSim SSA will enable corporations throughout Sub-Saharan Africa to utilize WindSim's proven simulation software and services to help design and operate more profitable wind farms.
Founded in 1993, WindSim is privately-held and venture-backed with offices and partners in Argentina, Canada, China, Costa Rica, Finland, Greece, India, Italy, Korea, Mexico, Norway, Serbia, Spain, Turkey, USA and now South Africa. WindSim’s comprehensive range of software and technical services cover the entire lifecycle of a wind farm and has been proven internationally for more than a decade. WindSim, the company's flagship product, is a world-class software solution based on CFD that combines advanced numeric processing with compelling 3D visualization in a user-friendly interface. Other services include wind measurement equipment, virtual wind data, potential site screening, measurement campaign design, wind resource mapping, bankable AEP assessments, site suitability studies, post construction assessments, power forecasting and dynamic line rating.
“The South African (SA) renewable energy sector has experienced exponential growth since the introduction of the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Program (REIPPPP) in 2011 and has become one of the fastest growing renewable energy markets in the world. After an extensive market investigation in 2015, I am excited to partner with WindSim AS on the launch of WindSim SSA. Our investigation clearly indicated an increasing demand for more accurate studies which will allow for greater protection of financiers interests and WindSim has a comprehensive range of tools and experts which can help the industry to achieve this” said Dirk Muller, Managing Director WindSim Sub-Saharan Africa (Pty) Ltd..
"WindSim is experiencing great interest from prospective customers and partners in the South African marketplace for our technology solutions. Through our establishment in Cape Town we show our strong commitment and a long term strategy to work with wind industry players in South Africa and the Sub-Saharan Africa region for common success", said John Olaf Rømma, CEO WindSim AS.
The announcement from WindSim AS comes six months after a successful joint venture in Brazil, cutting-edge product innovation, and successive quarters of positive growth. The opening up of the Sub-Saharan Africa market is one of the international expansion efforts by WindSim AS.

​CONTACT INFORMATION
John Olaf Rømma
CEO - WindSim AS
john.olaf.romma@windsim.com.

Dirk Muller
MD, WindSim SSA
dirk.muller@windsim.com

 French company InnoVent is planning to set up a 150 to 500 megawatt (MW) wind farm in Tsau //Khaeb (Sperrgebiet) National Park. The Sperrgebiet is a diamond mining area in south-western Namibia, north of Lüderitz.
InnoVent subsidiary InnoSun and the Ministry of Environment and Tourism (MET) will sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) tomorrow at a side event during the climate change conference in France.

The 21st session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 21) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) commenced on Monday.

Speaking to Nampa about this development on Tuesday, environmental commissioner Theofilus Nghitila commended the move, saying it is a signal to the world that Namibia has the potential for renewable energy.

“Namibia has the best wind regime in the world, which is unexploited for energy generation. We expect the signing ceremony to open a new era for Namibia for the private sector to tap into this potential to the fullest. This energy resource needs to be exploited like diamonds,” he stressed.

Namibia has set itself an ambitious target to have 90% of energy needs met by renewable energy by the year 2030. The target set by the year 2030 is subject to the availability of financial resources by developed countries, the Global Environment Fund (GEF) and the private sector, said Nghitila.

InnoVent, through its InnoSun and InnoWind subsidiaries, has provided a variety of organisations with several solar power and wind turbine installations so they can meet their energy needs. This has been a successful programme, with hundreds of panels and uninterruptible power supplies given to the organisations, according to an invitation issued by InnoSun to the MoU signing event on Friday.

“This MoU is the first step to allocate approximately 8 800 hectares to InnoWind for the implementation of a 150 to 500 MW wind farm in the Namib, one of the windiest places in the world,” it stated.

Following its developments in South Africa, InnoVent created InnoSun in 2008 with the aim of developing new projects in Namibia.
InnoSun was created in 2010 to develop, construct, finance and operate solar photovoltaic plants. This led to Namibia's first-ever multi-million dollar solar plant near Omaruru in the Erongo region being inaugurated in May this year.

“Namibia receives more sunlight than anywhere else on earth, so it was unthinkable not to harness this solar energy,” the company's website says.

In Africa, InnoVent has already developed wind farms producing thousands of megawatts in countries such as Morocco and Kenya. - Nampa

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Timeous connection to the electricity grid is considered a major constraint for the improved integration of renewable energies into South Africa’s energy mix.

Chris Bellingham, Senior Project Development Manager at juwi Renewable Energies, believes that new grid hubs in high renewable energy (RE) resource areas are important if RE is to maintain and improve upon the current momentum it has as an effective utility–scale solution to South Africa’s essential energy requirements.

“In South Africa, with its exceptionally good solar and wind energy resources, renewables has already proven to play a significant role in addressing the current energy supply crisis. Although the Government’s REIPPP program is a success,key aspects could be improved and there are literally hundreds of projects equating to many thousands of megawatts waiting in the wings to assist in facilitating economic growth through the generation of lower-cost and clean renewable energy on to the electricity grid. The relatively low annual Government allocations and limited grid connection availability, in particular, are the bottlenecks to increased project rollout” said Bellingham.

“Traditionally,(coal) power is generated in the northeast of the country and from there is distributed to the remainder of the country. We are now seeing the beginning of a shift in generation which will eventually see a significant amount of low-cost clean energy coming from the RE resource-rich areas in the south and west of the country. However, in order to open up many of the best resource areas new, suitable bulk grid connection points will need to be established;unfortunately with the current Eskom monopoly of transmission assets and investment into the sectorit is difficult to see this happening at the desired rate.”

The REIPPP program has been influential in bringing business and government together to combine their efforts to deliver on the country’s energy requirements in what is South Africa’s best public-private partnership of infrastructure assets to date. 

Bellinghamhopes that in the near future a mechanism will be in place within the REIPPP program to share grid upgrade costs across multiple projects at bid phase and thus enable a project evaluation process that results in the faster deployment of lowest-cost clean energy mix for the country.

“Wind energy ticks many boxes when considered as a clean energy solution in South Africa:  most projects now producean energy tariff below Eskom’s blended wholesale (Megaflex) rate,repay their carbon footprint within a year and have a high number of jobs per megawatt.” As announced yesterday during the annual Windaba conference currently underway in Cape Town, 15% of wind energy generated during the past 6 months has occurred during peak electricity consumption hours of the day – which is a much higher value electricity than the otherwise ‘baseload’ electricity.

South Africa has some of the best wind sites available in the world, with the Cape provinces providing the highest sources of consistent wind in SA.

On Friday, the South African state-owned power utility, Eskom, celebrated the first year since its 100MW wind farm in Vredendal started feeding power into the national electricity grid. The Sere Wind Farm is the utility’s first utility-scale renewable energy project, which first came online in October 2014.
According to the power company, the project reached completion on time and within budget, “with a safety record in line with Eskom’s Zero Harm policy, and without any environmental legal contraventions or incidents of industrial action.”
Reaching commercial operationIn April this year, Eskom announced that the wind farm reached its full commercial operation, contributing to saving nearly 6 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions over its 20 years' expected operating life.
The utility’s chief executive, Brian Molefe said that this project has an average annual energy production of about 298,000MWh, enough to supply about 124,000 standard homes.
Eskom said in a statement: “Sere demonstrates our commitment to renewable energy, diversifying our energy mix and reducing our carbon footprint.”
With the wind farm’s first wind turbine erected in December 2013, all of its 46 turbines are now in full operation.
“Although Sere has been feeding available power into the grid since October 2014, it achieved the target nominal generating capacity of 100MW on 27 January 2015,” the utility added.
Introducing solar PVIn addition to the Sere wind farm Eskom is involved in the development of a 100MW concentrated solar power (CSP) plant near Upington in the Northern Cape.
The project financiers include the World Bank, the African Development Bank, the Clean Technology Fund, and Agence Française de Développement.
Eskom claims that the CSP project will save an estimated 450,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions over its lifetime.
The utility added that it continues to work on the photovoltaic (PV) rollout at its “existing administration buildings, power stations and transmission substations, and also on solar augmentation where existing power stations are hybridised with solar thermal energy.
“Project Ilanga, Eskom’s PV project, is expected to add 150MWp by 2017/18, of which 2,35MWp has been installed.”

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The 138 MW Gouda wind farm, in the Western Cape, has officially entered commercial operations. Print Send to Friend 0 0 The project was selected by the Department of Energy following the second bid-window of the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP).
 
To date 92 renewables projects, with a nominal capacity of 6 243 MW, have been procured through the REIPPPP process and bidding for a so-called  “expedited” round to procure a further 1 800 MW is set to close on October 1. The Gouda plant, which is located in the Drakenstein municipality, consists of 46 turbines and has been developed by a consortium comprising ACCIONA Energy (51%), of Spain, and South African construction group Aveng (29%). Other partners include the Soul City Broad-Based Empowerment Company and a community development entity, which each have a 10% stake. In the same round the consortium was awarded the Sishen Solar Plant in the Northern Cape, which has a capacity of 94.3 MW. It entered service in November last year.

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Construction of the 80MW Noupoort Wind Farm by Mainstream Renewable Power in South Africa’s Northern Cape has begun with a ground-breaking opening ceremony.


The wind farm project is one of the first to start construction as part of the third round South Africa’s Renewable Energy Procurement Programme (REPP). Mainstream Renewable Power has been awarded a total of 848 MW of wind and solar projects under the programme since the first award in 2011. Three wind and solar facilities were delivered into commercial operation by the company last year under the first round of the programme and Mainstream is now constructing three wind farms in the Northern Cape, totalling 360 MW, of which Noupoort is one. The opening ceremony was attended by representatives from the community of the surrounding Umsobomvu Local Municipality, including Ward Counsellors and the Mayor and the wind farm is expected to start commercial operation in mid-2016.

Mainstream has also been awarded preferred bidder status for an additional two wind farms in the country’s Northern and Western Capes.

The Noupoort Wind Farm is owned by a consortium led by Lekela Power, a joint venture between Actis, and Mainstream Renewable Power. Other members include Thebe Investment Corporation; The IDEAS Managed Fund; Futuregrowth Asset Management; Genesis Eco-Energy in partnership with Lereko Metier Sustainable Capital; and the Noupoort Renewable Energy Trust, which was established with the objective of carrying out public benefit activities to assist the local community through economic development.

“In previous years, commercial activity in Noupoort was heavily dependent on railway activity” said Martina Flanagan Project Manager of Noupoort Wind Farm. Ms Flanagan previously worked on the construction of one of the Jeffreys Bay wind farms. “After demand on the rail network dwindled, the town suffered from a significant decline in local business leading to increasingly difficult socio-economic conditions for the local population. As the Noupoort Wind Farm is being built on an undeveloped site surrounding a small rural community, it will help boost the local economy and have a positive impact on the community. Already many people are being employed, with 162 locals working on the roads, electrical works and foundations for the wind turbines, a number of foundations have been cast to date. Employment of local labour will continue throughout the construction period.”

The wind farm is expected to generate around 305,000 MW of clean, renewable energy to the national grid eacy year. At full capacity, it is expected to supply enough green electricity to power approximately 70,000 average South African homes and avoid roughly 300,000 tonnes of carbon emissions each year when compared to traditional fossil fuel power plants.

Siemens Wind Power will supply the turbines which will be manufactured at the new Gestamp Wind Turbine Tower Factory in Atlantis, Western Cape. Delivery of the turbines is due to commence in October this year.

A consortium comprised of Murray and Roberts Construction and Consolidated Power Projects will complete the civila and electrical works.

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