R1bn Tsitsikamma Wind Energy Plan - over 2 years ago

2009/12/01

A R1-BILLION wind energy project with major benefits for a poverty-stricken Mfengu community was launched in Tsitsikamma yesterday.
The proposed Tsitsikamma Community Wind Farm will be established on 7000ha of the farm Wittekleibosch, bought in 1994 by the government to settle the Mfengu families, who had been removed forcibly to Ciskei’s Keiskammahoek under apartheid.

The project was initiated and driven by Port Elizabeth company Watt Energy, owned by Nelson Mandela Bay councillor Mcebisi Msizi.
Msizi spent seven years in exile in Denmark. His contact with that country, a recognised global leader in wind energy, features strongly in the Tsitsikamma deal.
He grew up in Emafengwini village, near Clarkson, where the proposed wind farm will be established. One of his chief memories of his childhood days was the wind, he said.
Research shows that the wind there has the same average velocity as experienced in established heavy-wind zones in northern Europe.

The aim is that the community will benefit from a share of the R14-million annual revenue, which will come from selling the electricity generated to Eskom at an agreed buy-back rate of R1,25 a kilowatt.
The electricity will be transferred to Eskom’s power grid through a new sub-station to be built nearby.

An environmental impact assessment (EIA) has been completed, and the scheme is under consideration by the authorities.
If the EIA was approved and power purchase agreement (PPA) legislation was passed before the end of the year as expected, Msizi said, the turbine should be up and ready to link with Eskom by 2013.

This community will never be the same again. There will be jobs building roads, erecting the turbines and maintaining them once they are up, he said. There will be money to build a clinic, a school, roads and water infrastructure and of course to bring electricity.

The project is close to the N2. It was hoped that the community would also be able to establish tourism trade around the project, guided by the successful hug a turbine model in Denmark, Msizi said.

If the Tsitsikamma project is successful, it could be duplicated elsewhere. Watt Energy has already been in discussions with Port Alfred, Hamburg and Coega in this regard.

by Guy Rogers ENVIRONMENT & TOURISM EDITOR rogersg@avusa.co.za

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