The development of wind turbine manufacturing capabilities in South Africa needs to be strategically motivated for it to become a globally competitive industry, global environmental conservation organisation World Wide Fund for Nature South Africa (WWF-SA) Living Planet unit head Saliem Fakir tells Engineering News.

He notes that interviews with original-equipment manufacturers showed that the level of localisation for some of the renewable-energy technologies is low, owing to issues such as scale, long-term visibility and the level to which the local industry has developed to motivate the construction of local manufacturing plants.

“To develop increased manufacturing capabilities, South Africa needs long-term visibility on the installation of wind turbines for the next 20 to 30 years. Further, WWF-SA estimates that between 200 MW and 500 MW a year of wind energy needs to be produced to achieve optimal levels of localisation in the country,” Fakir explains.

He adds that South Africa will probably have to increase its local manufacturing capabilities of wind towers and blades, owing to their size and weight, as well as the shipping costs of importing them.

However, he points out that at present personnel in South Africa do not have the experience and knowledge that international market leaders have in the manufacture of mechanical components such as those found in the nacelles of wind turbines.

“There is limited scope for high-end and high-value component manufacturing in South Africa, as the global industry is currently mature and has consolidated. South African companies aiming to enter this market segment will need to have very strong, strategic reasons to do so,” Fakir says.

Many South African companies, such as engineering company DCD Group, can configure its production and manufacturing capacity to manufacture wind towers. DCD has achieved this with its Wind Towers subsidiary that will start manufacturing wind towers in January.

“The manufacturing of blades is a bit more difficult, as companies actually need the mould to manufacture the blades, which, in turn, needs to be manufactured to the specifications of the wind site, owing to aspects such as aerodynamics. This requires a lot of experience and knowledge, which only a few companies in the world have, such as Denmark-based wind turbine blade manufacturing company LM Wind Power,” he adds.

Fakir notes that LM Wind Power is exploring the possibility of establishing a manufacturing plant in either the Eastern Cape or Western Cape.

“What will also determine localisation is whether global oversupply occurs, which is the case in the PV industry, the extent to which the wind turbine market expands worldwide and the constraints of component manufacturing caused by increased demand,” he adds.

Further, Fakir says it is also important to determine whether manufacturing will be purely for the local wind industry or for export. “There are a several complicated, strategic decisions that need to be made. However, a clear understanding of the supply chain and where in the supply chain South African companies could play the most competitive role, could lead to the growth of a globally competitive South African wind turbine manufacturing industry,” he concludes.