South Africa has become the latest African nation to develop two new wind energy projects that could serve the international clean energy market. The nation has become synonymous with significantly long blackouts that have swept across the entire country. The South African energy market is mostly dominated by coal production, but recent calls to increase the renewable energy output in a country that experiences year-round sunshine and exceedingly strong winds have become too loud for the government to ignore.
Regular blackouts have become an all too common theme in South Africa
South Africa is among the youngest democracies in the world, having held its first democratic and free election in 1996. Once the African National Congress won the election, energy market insiders warned the new government about aging energy infrastructure and emphasized the need to invest heavily in the nation’s energy market.
Seeing as though the entire nation was embroiled in a political transition, those investments in energy infrastructure never materialized, or did not meet the needs of the nation’s expected energy demand. This led to the government being forced to implement loadshedding, a directive that sees huge regions of the nation having the power simply cut off for hours at a time.
South Africa is finally addressing its energy needs to bring an end to loadshedding
With the significant outcry by the public over loadshedding, the ANC-led government has approved a new wind project that will strengthen energy security and provide vast amounts of clean energy for export to the international market. The nation has for generations exported the vast majority of the coal produced, but that reality is changing, albeit at a snail’s pace.
Acciona Energía is moving ahead with two new wind power projects in South Africa
The company recently began construction on two new wind power developments in the Western Cape. The Zen (100MW) and Bergriver (94MW) wind farms will generate vast amounts of clean energy in the Western Cape, which regularly sees extreme wind conditions, making it the perfect location for wind energy projects.
The two new wind developments will be located between Gouda and Saron and could generate upwards of nearly 200 MW of clean energy. The power produced by these two new wind projects has already been earmarked for a major domestic buyer, namely Etana Energy.
Etana has already secured a 20-year Power Purchasing Agreement for the energy generated on-site, and has noted that it will serve the company’s international customers, all of whom are searching furiously for clean energy across the international market.
A new era of clean energy generation is set to hit the shores of South Africa this year
With Europe dominating the renewable energy market in recent years, South Africa has now begun to accelerate the energy transition towards renewable energy, thanks in no small part to the Bergriver and Zen wind projects in the Western Cape.
The developments will be constructed by Acciona Energía and will feature the latest, state-of-the-art wind turbines from the undisputed king of the turbine market, Nordex. The two wind farms will be owned by Acciona Energía (51%) and a joint venture between H1 Capital and Chariot Limited (49%).
South Africa’s two new wind farms are expected to be commissioned in 2027
Following the financial close in December of last year, the expectations are for the projects to be commissioned by the developer by 2027, at the very latest. As new wind energy generation technology emerges this year, South Africa is aiming to end the decades-long stagnation in adopting renewable energy and focus on projects that strengthen the nation’s renewable energy market. The reality of the current energy market is that the energy transition is picking up momentum this year.
