South Africa is set to build 4 power plants in Free State. The plants which include a 147MW wind plant in Roggeveld, will be built, owned and operated by Global integrated Independent Power Producer (IPP) Building Energy.
The deals were made official in the presence of South African energy minister Jeff Radebe and Matteo Brambilla, Building Energy managing director Africa and Middle East.
“We are glad to have signed the agreement at the presence of Minister of Energy of South Africa for the construction of the Roggeveld plant, which represents our first wind farm in South Africa,” said Brambilla
“Furthermore, we are also happy to develop two of the 2.3GW of renewable energy projects allocated by the South African government in the first major investment deal under President Cyril Ramaphosa.”
Wind and hydro projects
The company received an award in preferred bidder status under Round 4 of the South African Department of Energy Renewable Independent Power Producer Procurement (REIPPP) Programme for the wind and hydro projects in April 2015.
These agreements will be the official start for the construction of the wind farm in Roggeveld, in the Laingsburg area, straddling the border between the Northern and Western Cape Provinces and the small-hydroelectric plant in Kruisvallei, in the Free State Province.
The Roggeveld wind farm will generate around 613GWh per year. The construction work is going to begin this year and the commercial operation date is April 2021.
The Kruisvallei small-hydroelectric plant will generate around 28GWh of energy annually and also cater for the energy needs of more than 2,330 households and save atmospheric emissions of over 23,800 tonnes of CO2 per year.
