Rhodes University and wind energy operator InnoWind have signed an agreement to collaborate on research and development related to the construction of a 36-MW wind farm in the Grahamstown area.

InnoWind was building the 12-turbine wind farm, which would become operational and sell electricity to the Eskom national grid, as soon as the enabling renewable energy regulations were finalised and implemented by government.

The company planned to form a trust, the Makana Winds of Change Education Trust, which would hold a 26% stake in the wind farm company.

In terms of the agreement, the parties would note local sector support for the wind farm, outline a mutual interest in tertiary level research and education opportunities associated with the project and to assist with the formation of the educational trust that would become a direct beneficiary of the project.

“Electricity can be generated cleanly and closely to where it is consumed, minimising costly network losses that come from transporting energy over large distances of the need for heavy new investment in network infrastructure,” InnoWind MD Martin Webb commented.