The 94-MW West Coast 1 wind farm in Western Cape Province owned by Aurora Wind Power, a venture of French utility ENGIE, Investec Bank Limited, South Africa, and KTH, South Africa, has started commercial operations.
The wind farm located close to Vredenburg is part of the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement (REIPPP) program of South Africa.
The program is aimed at developing renewable energy capacity of South Africa to 3.625 gigawatts by the end of 2016.
ENGIE holds a 43 percent equity stake in the project, while Investec Bank holds 34.5 percent and KTH 20 percent.
The 2.5 percent that remains has been allocated to a community trust which has been formed to develop and sustain the community inhabiting the surroundings of the farm.
The wind farm is comprised of 47, 2-MW wind turbines manufactured by Vestas. The turbine manufacturer is in charge of long-term service of the facility.
Construction of West Coast 1 was started in June 2013. Development of the wind farm took an investment of 160 million euros raised through a mix of equity and debt.
The project is extimated to offset an estimated 5.6 million tons of carbon dioxide over the 20-year duration of its power purchase agreement.
In 2014, another ENGIE-owned project — the 300 MW Tarfaya wind farm in Morocco — had started commercial operations. It was Africa’s largest wind power project and owned by ENGIE in partnership with Nareva Holding.
Ajith Kumar S