Renewable energy developer Juwi South Africa has reached financial close on and started building an 84 MW wind project in the Eastern Cape.
The Wolf Wind project was successfully bid by Red Rocket in Bid Window 5 of the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP).
Juwi expects the facility to start generating electricity for the grid by the first quarter of next year.
Wolf Wind marks the second wind project developed by Juwi to reach financial close under the REIPPPP, with the first having been the 138 MW Garob wind project, which started operating in 2021.
Red Rocket CEO Matteo Branbilla says the Wolf Wind project will be generating more than 360 GWh/y of clean electricity and offset 374 400 t/y of carbon dioxide emissions.
The project will also ensure more than R200-million of community investment over two decades through social projects.
Juwi MD Richard Doyle says the company remains committed to developing projects that address South Africa’s energy crisis and help achieve a clean energy transition.
“It is heartening to see the exponential growth in demand from the public and private sectors for large-scale renewable energy projects, and for hybrid projects that integrate battery storage,” he adds.
Juwi plans to initiate the development of a further 1 GW of wind, solar and hybrid projects this year.
Juwi project development head Chris Bellingham states that a key barrier to bringing large projects such as Wolf Wind online is grid capacity. He explains that while the country is working on ways to overcome the challenges imposed on many projects in this regard, Juwi prefers developing projects in unconstrained areas of the country’s grid.