Wind farm development project MetroWind Van Stadens (MWVS) Wind Farm will sell renewable energy to State-owned utility Eskom, which will be exhibiting at Power-Gen Africa 2014, for the next 20 years, in accordance with the terms of a power purchase agreement.

Further, the MWVS Wind Farm announced on February 2 that the facility completion milestone was achieved and the 27 MW wind farm had started commercial operations.

The facility has been supplying electrical power to the regional grid since late November 2013.

The 27 MW wind farm is situated in the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality, in the Eastern Cape. Nelson Mandela Bay is renowned for its significant wind resources and is home to South Africa’s ‘windy city’, Port Elizabeth.

The MWVS Wind Farm is 100% South African-owned, with 35% attributed to black economic empowerment. A portion of the project is owned by the Metro-wind Community Trust, which was established by the project developers as a vehicle to deliver their corporate social investment programme. In addition to the dividends payable to the community trust, 2.1% of the facility’s yearly revenue is being channelled into socioecon- omic development and enterprise development within the community.

Construction

Nine turbines, with a hub height of 90 m, were commissioned, each with three 56.5 m blades generating 3 MW each.

The contract for the construction of the wind farm was awarded to construction company Basil Read Matomo, with the turbine supply subcontract being awarded to turbine supplier Sinovel.

The MWVS Wind Farm has been under development since 2006. It was sel- ected preferred bidder in terms of the Department of Energy’s Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP). Construction of the R550-million project started in November 2012 and is the first commercial wind farm operating under the REIPPPP.