140MW Soetwater Wind Farm Commissioned in South Africa

•  Enel Green Power South Africa has fully commissioned the the 140MW Soetwater Wind Farm in South Africa.
• The Italian IPP announced last month that the plant has reached commercial operation and is feeding electrons into the national grid. 

Soetwater wind farm, which is located in a remote part of the Karoo Hoogland Local Municipality in the Northern Cape features Vestas V136-4.2 MW wind turbines, the largest on the African continent to date. 

Awarded to Enel Green Power 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. 

Soetwater wind farm brings the number of EGP RSA wind farms in operation up 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 are projects now in operation, the business has an overall installed capacity of 1.2GW. 

Manuele Battisti, Country Manager of EGP RSA, says construction of the facility, which involves a 200-million-euro (R 3 503 410 000,00) investment in South Africa, commenced in September 2019. 

“The construction process was hampered at times by stop/start delays in response to COVID-19 lockdowns and restrictions. 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. 

Author: Bryan Groenendaal