The 33MW onshore Excelsior wind farm project situated in the Western Cape Province in South Africa, the southernmost country of the African continent has been connected to the national grid after the commissioning of its 13 Goldwind GW121/2500 wind turbine generators. This is according to Robert Skjodt, the President and CEO of BioTherm Energy which is the project’s developing company.
“We are pleased to mark this milestone in the construction of the Excelsior wind farm, and we are confident that we will be able to announce commercial operations come next month (October 2020),” affirmed Mr. Skjodt.
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The firm is linked to the national grid through an on-site substation and a dedicated 132kV power line connecting to the Vryheid substation, located in the plant’s proximity in Swellendam.
1st wind farm under the REI4P
According to the developer, the Excelsior wind farm is the first of its kind in the Western Cape, under the government’s Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REI4P), Bid Window 4, to reach this key milestone.
The REIPPP was launched by the South African government to encourage PPIs to invest in renewable energy in the Rainbow Nation and it represents the governments’ most comprehensive and successful strategy to achieving a transition to a green economy, with IPPs located across the country, in alignment with the prevalence of renewable energy resources.
Wind projects are predominantly located along the coastal regions, including nine procured in the Western Cape Province. The latter has three wind farms presently under construction, which form part of the 27 Bid Window 4 IPPs that will collectively add 2,300MW to the country’s struggling national power grid, once they are all operational.
Other windfarsms in the Southern Africa country developed by the BioTherm Energy include Aggeneys Solar, Konkoonsies II Solar, and Golden Valley Wind.
