South Africa’s 140MW Kangnas wind farm begins commercial operation.

Two years after construction kicked-off, Kangnas Wind Farm achieved commercial operations on 15 November 2020, making it the first bid window four wind farm, in the Northern Cape, to come on stream as part of government’s Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP).

According to a media release, this wind farm will generate enough clean power to satisfy the needs of 154,625 average South African households, as it is expected to generate over 513GWh of renewable energy each year, during its 20-year operations period.

Constructed by a South African team, mostly from the local Nama Khoi Municipal area, this mega 140MW wind project comprises sixty-one turbines, and is one of 12 wind farms in this part of the REIPPP procurement bid round.

“These projects will collectively add 1.3GW of new wind power capacity, onto the country’s national grid, at a time when South Africa needs more available energy to support the rebuilding of the country in a post-COVID era,” said Manie Kotzé, the construction project manager of Kangnas Wind Farm.

Following industry trends, as set up by the Department of Energy’s local content requirements, the wind farm achieved very high local content levels, exceeding 45%. This includes both locally manufactured turbine towers as well as the project’s mega transformer, helping to drive the demand for local manufacturers to offer items previously only available through import.

Construction commenced during June 2018. As with all the wind farms that were under construction at the time the country’s national COVID-19 lockdown kicked in, construction at this Northern Cape wind farm was halted and gradually picked up pace after 19 May 2020.

16 November 2020

IEEFA