Enel Green Power South Africa has confirmed that the Nordex manufacturing facility being set up in Humansdorp, in the Eastern Cape, will produce concrete wind tower sections for the three new wind farms that make up its Impofu Cluster.

With a combined capacity of 336 MW, the Impofu East, Impofu West and Impofu North projects will comprise 57 turbines, atop 120-m-high concrete towers.

The electricity will be produced under a wheeling framework agreement with Air Liquide and Sasol, which are procuring the electricity to decarbonise the oxygen production facility at Secunda, which is the largest in the world.

Construction on the wind farms, as well as eight high-voltage substations and 120 km of 132 kV high-voltage overhead electricity lines began in March and they are scheduled to enter commercial operation in 2026.

Enel Green Power South Africa project execution head Alessandra Governanti says concrete towers have been selected for Impofu “in order to be able to have local manufacturing for at least one of the aerogenerator's components”.

“All the other components are manufactured abroad and must be imported,” Governanti adds.

Nordex Energy South Africa has reported that the purpose-built manufacturing facility will be located about one-and-a-half hours from the Port of Ngqura, where the remaining turbine components will land.

Operations at the manufacturing plant, which will create up to 300 jobs, are scheduled to start in May 2024, with the installation of the first turbines scheduled for the second half of 2024.

Nordex Energy South Africa sales head David Moncasi Hortet says the wind farm cluster will enhance the group’s domestic market presence, where it has a 32% market share, operating more than 1.1 GW, including 573 MW in the Eastern Cape.

“The province is already an important hub for us, as we have a head office here as well as a warehouse, in addition to the numerous wind farms,” Moncasi Hortet adds.