Eagle-friendly wind farm spreads its wings
A huge green energy project is about to start construction after checking for martial eagle nesting sites
● One of South Africa’s biggest private renewable energy projects has finally got the green light after more than a decade of preparation — including a plan to protect the biggest eagle in Africa from wind turbines.
Red Cap Energy had to get buy-in from dozens of landowners, most of them farmers, for the Impofu wind farm project in the Kouga region of the Eastern Cape, which — together with its transmission infrastructure — affects 87 parcels of land.
But it was the endangered martial eagle that presented the biggest challenge.
An attempt by the family of the late Bosasa CEO Gavin Watson to build a similar project in the area was rejected in 2021 by the department of forestry, fisheries & the environment because “it posed a high risk to threatened birds of prey nesting in the area”.
Red Cap Energy had to find a way around the problem.
“We collaborated with local environmental organisations and brought in a bird specialist to observe the bird life in the area,” said Jadon Schmidt, the company’s business development manager. “We followed the recommendations and moved planned sites for towers around to create sensitivity buffers.
“In the case of the martial eagles, we have a 6km radius no-go area surrounding the nest. If you move one turbine, the others are affected by the turbulence effect. We had to reconfigure the entire layout, which we gladly did. We implemented the recommendations by the specialist to the letter. It is something we take very seriously.”
Peter Mbelengwa, spokesperson for the department of the environment, said the initial go-ahead for the wind farm was given five years ago, and the environment management programme and layout plan were approved last year.
The wind farm could be operational by March next year. Once complete, it will supply 330MW of renewable energy to Sasol’s Secunda site, where French-based industrial gas supplier Air Liquide operates the world’s largest oxygen production site.
“It’s been a journey, that is for sure,” said Schmidt. “We are just happy we managed to get this project over the line, and proud and grateful that construction can maybe start as early as next week. It took us 10 years to get here, but we hope to be supplying 330MW of power to the grid by late in 2025 or the first quarter of 2026.
“Since 2013, we’ve spent years negotiating with farmers to lease land on which to build wind turbines. In total, the farm’s 57 turbines will extend across 12 pieces of land
— with significant benefits for landowners and local agricultural output.”
Schmidt said the project was valued at “somewhere between R9bn and R10bn”.
“At the moment the identity of the backers is confidential, but hopefully that will be released in the next couple of weeks.”
Schmidt and his team began negotiating with affected landowners about 10 years ago. “The power line to our injection point into the national grid crosses 87 parcels of land. We had to negotiate with the owners of each parcel of land separately,” he said.
Red Cap has a “self-build” agreement with Eskom. “Essentially the developer has to take the financial and permitting risk to go obtain the environmental authorisation as well as the land access rights,” Schmidt said. “You have to also meet all Eskom’s physical requirements, but once the line is physically constructed, the keys, so to speak, get handed over to Eskom and it becomes part of their network.”
Red Cap has previously developed two projects in the same area — the Kouga wind farm and the Gibson Bay wind farm. “Both are running successfully,” Schmidt said.
Conrad Dreyer, one of the farmers who will host turbines, said the decision to be part of the wind farm was a “no-brainer”.
“It is a small piece of your land that they take up and in return they improve your infrastructure like roads and so forth.”
There were two types of deals going around, according to Dreyer. “You could sign up for a monthly rental amount or a percentage share of the profits generated by the towers on your property. I think most farmers took the latter route,” Dreyer said.
“The project changed several times because of environmental challenges over the 10 years. Initially I was going to have nine towers on my farm, now I will have four. There is physical space for many more, but the developer is strict about sticking to environmental recommendations.
“This is very good news for us as farmers in the area,” Dreyer said. “You always try to generate some off-farm income and this is a fantastic way to do it. There are always things that need fixing, like fences ... This money will help looking after these issues.”
In the case of the martial eagles, we have a 6km radius no-go area surrounding the nest
Jadon Schmidt