Page 9 - AfrElec Week 30 2021

AfrElec RENEWABLES AfrElec

Oyster Bay wind farm begins

operation in South Africa

SOUTH AFRICA ENEL Green Power RSA’s 140-MW Oyster Bay (82.5 MW) in the Western Cape, Pulida (82.5
wind farm, in South Africa’s Kouga municipal- MW) in the Free State and Tom Burke (66 MW)
ity in the Eastern Cape, has begun commercial in Limpopo.
operation. The launch of Oyster Bay comes shortly
William Price, country manager at Enel after the Nxuba wind farm reached commercial
Green Power RSA, said the project represented operation ahead of schedule in December last
investment in South Africa of €180mn. year, despite challenges presented by the global
The wind farm will generate more than pandemic.
568 GWh a year and will avoid the emission of “The Oyster Bay wind farm was one of five
590,000 tonnes of CO2. This brings the number wind projects awarded to Enel Green Power
of operational Enel Green Power RSA wind and in April 2015. The solution is supported by a
solar sites in South Africa to nine, with an overall 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with
installed capacity of over 800 MW. South African energy utility provider Eskom as
The projects include Nojoli (88 MW), Gib- part of the South African government’s Renew-
son Bay (111 MW) and Nxuba (140 MW) in the able Energy Independent Power Producer
Eastern Cape; Upington (10 MW) and Adams Procurement Programme (REIPPPP) tender,”
(82.5 MW) in the Western Cape; Paleisheuwel explained Price.™
IRENA points to resilient and sustainable

potential of offshore wind

AFRICA OFFSHORE wind has the potential to accelerate strengthening of oceans governance in line with
the energy transition and allow G20 countries to UN Law of the Sea, the integration of offshore
build a resilient and sustainable energy system. renewables into national marine spatial plan-
This would require offshore wind capacity to ning and early planning for infrastructure such
grow from 34 GW today to 380 GW by 2020 and as underwater cables and grids.
2,000 GW by 2050, the International Renewa- Policy frameworks, international co-opera-
ble Energy Agency (IRENA) found in a recent tion and investment in R&D are key recommen-
report. dations to drive offshore globally.
Ocean energy, such as wave and tidal technol- In terms of sustainability, offshore renewables
ogy, would represent an additional 350 GW of have the potential to contribute greatly to the
offshore renewable generation capacity by 2050. UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs),
These targets would need to be met in order especially SDG 14, which covers the sustaina-
to limit global warming to 1.5°C, the report said. ble use of oceans while boosting blue economy
The IRENA report, called Offshore Renewa- activities such fishery, shipping and tourism.
bles: An Action Agenda for Deployment actively A blue economy fuelled by offshore renew-
contributes to the G20, called for more commer- ables would help islands and countries with
cialisation of offshore technologies such as wind, coastal areas to meet their national goals aligned
wave, tidal, ocean thermal and floating PV. with the Paris Agreement and 2030 Sustainable
“Offshore renewables have the potential to Development Agenda, the report argues.
meet more than twenty times of today’s global G20 members, which include South Africa,
power demand”, said Francesco La Camera, are home to over three-quarters of total offshore
Director-General of IRENA. renewable installed capacity to date.
“Particularly offshore renewables constitute a 99.3% of total offshore wind capacity and
critical pillar for decarbonising energy systems nearly all installed ocean energy capacity glob-
and fostering a global blue economy. I congratu- ally can be found in G20 countries.
late the G20 Presidency for their forward-look- However, South Africa currently has no off-
ing decision to integrate offshore renewables in shore wind developments, and none of its 14.4
the G20 agenda. IRENA is pleased to support the GW of planned wind farms to be built by 2030
G20 Offshore Renewables Action Agenda with are offshore.
our energy transition expertise and valuable However, the South African Wind Energy
input from our global membership.” Association (SAWEA) has argued that offshore
IRENA put forward a number of pol- wind could potentially help resolve the country’s
icy requirements in its report, including the ongoing energy crisis.™

Week 30 29•July•2021 www. NEWSBASE .com P9