The 140MW Soetwater Wind Farm in South Africa has been fully commissioned by Enel Green Power South Africa. The Italian IPP announced last month that the plant is now operational and is supplying electrons to the national grid.
The Vestas V136-4.2 MW wind turbines at the Soetwater wind farm in the Karoo Hoogland Local Municipality in the Northern Cape are the largest on the African continent to date.
Enel Green Power was awarded the contract in April 2013 as part of round four of South Africa’s Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme. (REIPPPP), the wind farm is supported by a 20-year Power Purchase Agreement with South African energy utility provider, Eskom.
The addition of the Soetwater wind farm brings the total number of EGP RSA wind farms in operation to seven and includes Nojoli (88 MW), Oyster Bay (140 MW), Nxuba (140 MW), Garob (140 MW) and sister wind farm Karusa (147 MW).
Collectively, the renewable energy supplier now has 12 operational wind and solar projects in South Africa. With our projects now in operation, the business has an overall installed capacity of 1.2GW.
According to Manuele Battisti, Country Manager of EGP RSA, construction of the facility, which involves a 200-million-euro (R 3 503 410 000,00) investment in South Africa, began in September 2019.
“Due to COVID-19 lockdowns and restrictions, the construction process was frequently impeded by stop/start delays.” The hard lockdown in 2020 – in particular – resulted in difficulties relating to the transportation of people between provinces, as well as the transportation of experts and commissioning teams from other parts of the world. This highlights, all the more, what a significant achievement this is for both the project team and the country,” he adds
