South Africa’s state-owned utility Eskom is in negotiations for a proposed wind farm to be built near Koekenaap in the Vredendal area of the Western Cape.
The proposed project would incorporate the creation of a wind farm with an initial capacity of 100 MW that could potentially be increased to 200 MW. The plant would enable the storage of renewable energy for use during the evening peak demand that caused a great deal of havoc in January.
It was also announced in June that a public and private sector grouping had signed a Memorandum of Understanding to construct an 80 MW wind farm in the Cape. The grouping includes the Western Cape Department of Environmental Affairs and Development Planning, along with Seeland Development Trust, the Saldanha Municipality, Oxfam UK, and Genesis Eco-Energy. This announcement followed the small Darling Wind Farm coming online in May.
The new project has been dubbed the Koekenaap wind-farm project. Eskom has already put potential financing in place, having signed a 20-year €100-million framework loan agreement with French development agency Agence Française de Dèveloppement (AFD) for partial financing of the wind farm project according to reports this past June.
“It is expected that these negotiations will end at the end of October. Thereafter, evaluations will be done and a report will be submitted to the Board Tender Committee for approval,” Eskom’s media desk stated.
The Koekenaap is projected to be complete by the end of March 2010.