Enel completes its first wind farm in South Africa

Enel, through its subsidiary Enel Green Power RSA (EGP RSA), has completed and connected to the grid the Nojoli wind farm, which is located in South Africa’s Eastern Cape province. Nojoli is the Enel Group’s first wind farm to start production in South Africa.

“The completion of Nojoli demonstrates our continued commitment to the South African Renewable Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme”, said Bill Price, Enel’s Country Manager in South Africa.“Successfully reaching full capacity at our first wind farm in South Africa also represents the expansion of our capability in the country to both solar PV and wind projects. These two technologies will deliver not only clean energy to South Africans, but also with a swift time to production and favourable cost competitiveness globally versus all other new power generation sources.”

The new wind farm has a total installed capacity of 88 MW and will be able to generate more than 275 GWh per year, equivalent to the annual consumption needs of around 86,000 South African households, therefore avoiding the emission of more than 251,000 tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere each year.

The Nojoli wind farm is supported by a 20-year power supply agreement with the South African power utility Eskom, which Enel was awarded in October 2013 following the third round of the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP) tender promoted by the South African government.

In South Africa, Enel’s renewable subsidiary EGP RSA currently owns and operates three photovoltaic power plants: Paleisheuwel (82.5 MW), which is situated in the Western Cape province, Tom Burke (66 MW) in the Limpopo province and Upington (10 MW) in the Northern Cape Province.

EGP RSA has nearly 1 GW of projects currently in execution of which 276 MW under construction: the Adams and Pulida photovoltaic plants (both with 82.5 MW capacity) and the 111 MW Gibson Bay wind farm.