Siemens Gamesa to install two large onshore wind farm projects in South Africa

While the 140 MW Kangnas wind farm project is located near Springbok in the Northern Cape, another 110 MW Perdekraal East wind farm is situated 80km northeast of Ceres in the Western Cape. A 10 year full service agreement will secure the performance of the wind farms, which will together supply enough clean electricity for approximately 214.000 South African homes.

A consortium led by Mainstream Renewable Power was awarded the contracts for the wind farms by the Department of Energy in South Africa as part of the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producers Procurement Programme (REIPPPP). While Siemens Gamesa will start the supply of the wind turbines early 2019, the wind farm’s completion is planned for 2020.

“This is the next big milestone for Siemens Gamesa in South Africa and with adding these two wind farms, Siemens Gamesa will have installed more than 850MW of wind capacity in the country” says Janek Winand, Managing Director Siemens Gamesa South Africa. “We are proud to offer services with a localized team based in Johannesburg with long lasting experience and determined to generate value for South Africa by creating jobs, supporting local manufacturing and driving development projects within local communities” he adds. Present in South Africa since 2014, the accumulated base installed by Siemens Gamesa accounts today 324 MW of rated capacity, and two wind projects totaling 280 MW under construction.

Owner of the wind farms is the Mainstream Renewable Power consortium. Mainstream is an independent global developer of renewable energy based in Dublin, Ireland, with offices in 7 countries around the globe with one of their largest in Cape Town, South Africa. Siemens Gamesa has already delivered several projects to Mainstream in the past with a total of 498 MW. The first 138 MW were supplied for the Jeffreys Bay wind farm in 2014, another 80 MW for Noupoort wind farm in 2016 and in 2017 a total of 280 MW were commissioned for Loeriesfontein and Khobab wind farms counting 140 MW each. Siemens Gamesa secured full service agreements of 10 years for Nouport, Khobab and Loriesfontain and 5 years for Jeffreys Bay.

“We are very proud to have won further projects, part of the ambitious renewable energy program of South Africa in line with the national commitment to transition to a low carbon economy”, says Enrique Pedrosa, CEO Onshore for South Europe and Africa at Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy. “We are strongly committed to continuously support the country on its path to provide more and more Africans with clean energy and will do everything to contribute to its socio-economic and environmentally sustainable growth”.

Additionally, the establishment of the Siemens Gamesa blade factory in Tangier (Morocco) end of 2017 represents a major commitment to the sustainable future of the entire region, being the first blade plant of a wind turbine manufacturer in Africa and the Middle East. The plant is ready to deliver blades to Europe, Africa and the Middle East.