TUKS VET STUDENTS bare all for drought relief aid

Both humans and snakes, including Cape cobras and puff adders, are being protected on the Perdekraal East Wind Farm that is currently under construction in the Witzenberg Local Municipality in the Western Cape.

Environmental site officer, Chandré Kok, recently received training from the African Snakebite Institute to safely capture and relocate any of the 16 different species of snakes known to inhabit the wind farm’s 3 055ha fynbos environment.

“I was elated with the prospect of being the dedicated snake handler on the wind farm, and know how important it is to be able to correctly identify the type of snake to ensure that staff are kept safe,” said Kok.

“I see the training on how to remove a dangerous snake and the knowledge to identify snakes as critical skills,” she added. The snake-handling kit she received included snake tongs for handling captured snakes, and relocating them about 5km away from where they were caught.

Once the wind farm is fully operational, it will comprise 48 wind turbines, each 115m in height.

The turbines will collectively be able to generate about 368,8GWh of energy a year. This is enough energy to power up to 95 000 average-sized homes.

Speaking at the recent Windaba 2018 held in Cape Town, the Department of Energy’s directorgeneral, Thabane Zulu, said that for South Africa to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions, it was critical to diversify its national energy portfolio. Zulu said the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producers Procurement Programme had secured private investments totalling almost R193 billion from 92 projects, and produced 6 328MW of electricity between 2011 and 2015.

“With the recent Investment Summit, we are on track to surpass the target of US$100 billion [R1,43 trillion] that the president has set [for investment in South Africa].

“Of this target, we believe that US$25 billion [R357 billion] could come from the energy sector,” he added. – Lloyd Phillips

the handler must identify the species to keep staff safe

Perdekraal East Wind Farm ABOVE: Perdekraal East Wind Farm’s ‘snake wrangler’, Chandré Kok, with some of the equipment she uses to capture and relocate snakes from areas that are under construction.