- EDF Renewables closes the financing of two wind projects in South Africa.
- The Phezukomoya and San Kraal wind farms will have a capacity of 280 MW.
The subsidiary of the Electricité de France (EDF) group has announced the financial closure of two of its wind farms under development in the rainbow nation. The Phezukomoya and San Kraal wind farms are being developed under the fifth round of tenders of the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP).
The projects, located in Umsombomvu, a municipality near the boundary of the Eastern and Northern Cape provinces, are now in the building phase and are scheduled to be operational in 2024. Each wind farm will contain 23 wind turbines with a total capacity of 140 MW, each measuring 124 meters in height and 83 meters in length. The main transmission substation (MTS) in Koruso is another EDF project component in addition to installing the wind turbines.
In the 5th REIPPP tender, the independent power producer (IPP) was given the go-ahead to build three wind farms. By the end of January 2023, EDF plans to have finished financing its 140 MW Coleskop wind project. Once operational, the three wind farms will produce 420 MW, enough electricity to meet the needs of 193,000 South African households, EDF estimates.
In collaboration with the South African investment firm H1 Holdings, the engineering and consulting firm GIBB-Crede, a local community trust, and the Johannesburg-based company GIBB-Crede, the French company is developing the Coleskop, Phezukomoya, and San Kraal wind projects.