SOUTH AFRICA: EDF Launches Construction of the 140 MW Wind Farm

  • EDF Group has announced the financial and commercial closure of its Coleskop wind farm project.
  • The facility, built on the border of the Eastern and Northern Cape provinces, will have a capacity of 140 MW.

Following the recent financial closure by the project developer Electricité de France (EDF Renewables) and its local partners, H1 Holdings and Gibb-Crede, The Coleskop Wind Project is now entirely in the construction phase. The consortium raised 3.5 billion South African rands (more than $202 million) from Anglo-South African bank Investec, South Africa’s Standard Bank, its compatriot Absa, and Momentum Metropolitan, a financial services group based in Tshwane, South Africa.

Under the 5th bidding window of the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producers Procurement Programme, the Coleskop project is being constructed (REIPPP). On the boundary of the Eastern and Northern Cape provinces, close to Middelburg, in the nearby Umsombomvu local municipality, a 140 MW wind farm is being constructed. EDF Renewables and its partners acquired three concessions total during the 5th REIPPPP window, the project being one of them.

On November 10, 2022, Phezukomoya and San Kraal, EDF’s other two wind farms, reached financial close. Power purchase agreements (PPAs) covering all three wind farms have a 20-year term with Eskom, the state-owned utility in South Africa. EDF Renewables is additionally participating in the RMI4P’s implementation (Risk Mitigation Procurement Programme).

EDF is constructing the Umoyilanga project as a part of this South African government program, which entails building a power plant combining solar, wind, and battery storage technologies to produce 75 MW of dispatchable energy to the national grid. It consists of a 138 MWp solar plant in the Northern Cape and a 77 MW wind farm on the coast of southern South Africa.

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