The Impofu Wind Power Farms Complex (IWPFC), is a cluster of three wind power plants under construction in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

. The power stations together with the associated high-voltage substations and of 132 kV overhead power lines are expected to generate 330 MW of power. The power is then expected to be transmitted to Secunda in

Mpumalanga Mpumalanga () is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. The name means "East", or literally "The Place Where the Sun Rises" in the Nguni languages. Mpumalanga lies in eastern South Africa, bordering Eswatini and Mozambique. It shares bor ...

, where the French industrial group

Air Liquide Air Liquide S.A. ( , ; literally " liquid air") is a French multinational company which supplies industrial gases and services to various industries including medical, chemical and electronic manufacturers. Founded in 1902, after Linde it is ...

, will use the power in the largest oxygen-production plant in the world, that is located there. The power will be transmitted from the wind farms to the off-taker by

Eskom Eskom Hld SOC Ltd or Eskom is a South African electricity public utility. Eskom was established in 1923 as the Electricity Supply Commission (ESCOM) (). Eskom represents South Africa in the Southern African Power Pool. The utility is the larg ...

, the national electricity utility company under a long-term "wheeling agreement".

Location

The three power stations, "Impofu East Wind Power Station", "Impofu West Wind Power Station" and "Impofu North Wind Power Station" are located in Impofu, in Kouga Municipality, Sarah Baartman District, in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa.

Humansdorp Humansdorp is a town in the Eastern Cape of South Africa, with a population of around 29,000 as of the 2011 Census. It is part of the Kouga Local Municipality of the Sarah Baartman District. History The town is the centre of the district's l ...

, the nearest large town is located approximately , by road, west of

Gqeberha Gqeberha ( , ), formerly named Port Elizabeth, and colloquially referred to as P.E., is a major seaport and the most populous city in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is the seat of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipa ...

, the nearest large city. This is about , by road, east of

Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

, the second largest city in South Africa.

Overview

The power stations complex is owned and is under development by

Enel Green Power Enel Green Power S.p.A. is an Italian multinational renewable energy corporation, headquartered in Rome. The company was formed as a subsidiary of the power generation firm Enel in December 2008. It has operations in five continents generating ...

, the 100 percent subsidiary of the Italian energy conglomerate

Enel Enel S.p.A. is an Italian multinational manufacturer and distributor of electricity and gas. Enel was first established as a public body at the end of 1962, and then transformed into a limited company in 1992. In 1999, following the liberali ...

. The design calls for three adjacent wind farms, with a total of 57 wind turbines. Each turbine is rated at 5.8 MW. A total of eight high-voltage substations and approximately of 132kV high voltage overhead transmission line will deliver the 330 MW of power generated here, to a location where it will enter the Eskom grid. The power stations occupy 12 pieces of land and the power line sits on 87 separate pieces of real estate, all leased from local farmers. In Secunda, the power supplied is expected to power the 16 "air separation units" (ASUs) operated by the French industrial group Air Liquide, to produce

oxygen Oxygen is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol O and atomic number 8. It is a member of the chalcogen group (periodic table), group in the periodic table, a highly reactivity (chemistry), reactive nonmetal (chemistry), non ...

Development

''Red Cap Energy (Pty) Limited'' (RCEPL), a South African renewable energy development company based in Cape Town, has been working on this project for at least 10 years before construction began. In 2017, RCEPL hired ''Zutari'', a South African consulting engineering firm to carry out

environmental impact assessment Environmental impact assessment (EIA) is the assessment of the environmental impact, environmental consequences of a plan, policy, program, or actual projects prior to the decision to move forward with the proposed action. In this context, the te ...

s (EIAs) for the three Impofu wind farms, and for a 120 km-long 132 kV overhead high-voltage power line to

Construction costs

The construction budget is estimated at ZAR:9 billion (approx. US$480 million).

References

External links