Suzlon delivers turbines for Cookhouse wind farm
WIND-powered electricity as an alternative to coal-fuelled electricity got a boost on Friday, when it was announced that the first consignment of 16 turbines destined for the largest wind farm in Africa had arrived at Coega port, near Port Elizabeth, in the Eastern Cape.
The port is part of the Coega Industrial Development Zone.
The zone is intended to house heavy, medium and light industries, which in turn will build infrastructure in the province.
The turbines were built in India for the Cookhouse wind farm by Suzlon, a wind turbine supplier.
Suzlon in 2011 signed a contract with local company African Clean Energy Developments to supply 76 of its 2MW turbines for a wind energy facility in the Eastern Cape.
The turbines have 44m blades. They are the first wind turbines under the Department of Energy’s renewable energy independent power producers procurement programme, which was announced in 2010. The parts arrived in the Eastern Cape on the Cape Althea ship on Friday morning.
The parts include blades, nacelles (cover housings) and hubs.
Suzlon appointed former City Power MD Silas Zimu as local CEO last year.
Mr Zimu said on Friday that the company had ambitions to establish manufacturing capacity in SA eventually. “The process is under way to use wind technology to help manufacturing in SA,” he said.
The company’s global spread extends across Australia, Europe, Africa, Asia and North and South America, with installations providing more than 20,000MW and operations across 32 countries. It employs about 13,000 people.
African Clean Energy Developments has an option to acquire a further 124 turbines for the wind farm at Cookhouse.
It is owned by a consortium of African infrastructure investors which include Apollo, African Infrastructure Investment Fund 2, Old Mutual Investment Group SA, and Macquarie Group of Australia.
Various companies are looking to develop wind technology in SA.
Late last year, Swedish investor Mia Bergstrom said that in 2009 she was approached by the Coega Development Corporation to build 20 wind turbines in the Coega industrial development zone.
SA is trying to use energy sources other than coal to develop sustainable energy sufficiency.
Wind turbines are environmentally safe, Ms Bergstrom said. However, critics of wind turbine technology argue that the turbines are noisy and affect bird life.
“Wind turbines are one of the few energy generating sources that you can establish and, when taken away in 25 years’ time, won’t have left any mark on the environment,” Ms Bergstrom said.