Noupoort onshore wind farm in South Africa
A major onshore wind farm in South Africa has been commissioned Mainstream Renewable Power a consortium behind the development has announced.
The wind firm facility is expected to contribute 304,800MWh of power per annum when operating at full capacity. Nonetheless, 69,000 South African homes will be powered by the electricity supply from the wind firm.
Constructed on a 7,500 hectares of land, the Noupoort Wind plant comprises of 35 wind turbines with each having a height of 99m. The plant is located in Umsobomvu Municipal Area which is 10km east of Noupoort in the Northern Cape.
Developers behind the Noupoort onshore Wind farm in South Africa is Lekela Power, a joint venture between investor Actis and global solar and wind company Mainstream Renewable Power. The three joint venture developers have also plans to construct new wind and solar capacity plants generating over 1,300MW of power across Africa by 2018.
Other members of the consortium include Nourpoort Renewable Energy Trust, the IDEAS Managed Fund, Futuregrowth Asset Management, Genesis Eco-Energy and the Thebe Investment Corporation in partnership with Lereko Metier Sustainable Capital.
The US$132.7m wind plant project commissioned all its 35 turbines and they were connected to the country’s national grid. The project has been under construction for the last 17 months before commissioning.
Noupoort Wind Farm country programme manager, Savva Antoniadis, described the project as a milestone completed as targeted meeting all the Eskom’s requirements which includes the grid code compliance and thereby achieving the commercial operations dates after 17 months of construction.
First to successfully achieve full operation
However, compared to the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP), the new wind plant facility is the first to successfully achieve full operation as part of the third round of the South African funding scheme aimed at boosting the country’s clean energy supplies.
Even so, more than 500,000 South African homes are currently supplied with adequate electricity fromt the South Africa’s relatively young wind energy sector made up of 15 large wind farms generating more than 3GW of power.
As the Northern Cape region ushers in a new wind farm, the ACWA Power 120MW wind farm project nears completion in Morocco. According to ACWA Power Khalladi, the 120MW wind power project has concluded its final orders to suppliers and contractors of the project located in the North part of Morocco.
The US$173.2m project commenced its construction in November last year. When completed the project is expected to reduce CO2 emissions by more than 200,000 tonnes.
Formerly known as UPC Renewables, ACWA Power Khalladi is 75% owned by ACWA Power whereas the remaining 25% is owned by the ARIF Investment Fund. The two institutions aim to bring to operation 2GW of wind power generation capacity by 2020. Infact the targeted 2GW of wind power generation represents 14% of Morocco’s national installed generation capacity.
