Currently there are 294 installed wind turbines in South Africa from the 8 that it had in 2012.
The South Africa Wind Energy Association (Sawea) is hopeful that by the year 2020, 2500 wind turbines in South Africa will have been installed so as to prevent load shedding. This will also help in the increase of private generation and diversity in the coal electricity mix which is prevailing in the country.
According to the CEO of Sawea, Johan van den Berg, all the wind turbines in South Africa presently installed had been constructed with private money with an estimated US $4.44bn being invested on the same in the past 3 years in projects that had been attained under Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP).
The company noted that wind tariffs had gone down to around 62c/kWh during the last bid window with current prices being 40 percent cheaper in every unit of electricity. This price was cheap as compared to the price from Medupi coal power station.
Van den Berg further noted that in 2014, wind turbines in South Africa helped save money with a cash positive of US $24.18m while at the same time avoiding loss of US $64.48m of unsaved energy. Wind energy helped the country to avoid up to 117 hours of load shedding in the same year.
During the Global Wind Day, the council emphasized thatwind turbines in South Africa was now mainstream and was a rapidly growing sector globally with a total investment of US $8.06Bbn in 2014.
More businesses were currently using this system for powering their data centers and factories.
