- A high resolution wind resource map has been launched in South Africa by the Department of Energy.
- The atlas is the work of the Wind Atlas of South Africa (WASA) and its partners.
MR Ompi Aphane has announced the launch of a high resolution wind map for South Africa. He was speaking on behalf of the Energy Department’s Director General at the Wind Atlas of South Africa (WASA) seminar held in East London this morning.
Aphine noted that successful bid tariffs achieved in the 2015 expedited Bidding Window 4 of the REIPPPP were below 5 USDc/kWh for electricity generation from both wind and solar PV.
“As we continue on our ambitious renewable energy path, wind energy remains an integral part of this goal. However, it would be difficult to plan thoroughly for the increased uptake of wind energy if one does not have certainty on wind resource availability. Therefore, the need for reliable, accurate and representative data on wind is critical. It is for this reason that the Department of Energy undertook to complete WASA, the wind atlas of South Africa”.
WASA constitutes one of the most critical elements of South Africa’s renewable energy efforts due to its contribution to the repository of knowledge about the scale and location of our wind resources.
Thanks to the WASA project, South Africa has developed an excellent wind resource assessment capability at key public institutions, namely CSIR, South African Weather Services and the University of Cape Town, which allows for the planning of large-scale exploitation of wind power nationally.
The country has also developed critical project management and knowledge management expertise at the South African National Energy Development Institute and the CSIR which hosts the WASA project database and website.
Aphine added that the country owe’s a great deal of gratitude to the Danish Government, Global Environment Facility (GEF) as well as the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Country Office for their support of the WASA project. “Through our collaboration, we have been able to develop a high resolution wind atlas based on international standards, largely due to securing sufficient funds from the Global Environmental Facility and the Danish Government as well as the technical support received from the Danish Technical University (DTU) during implementation of the project,”
Link to WASA wind atlas project information
Author: Bryan Groenendaal
