28/02/2005: The Director-General
for Environmental Affairs and Tourism, Dr
C Olver, has today decided to approve the
proposed wind farm on the farm Windhoek in
the Darling district of the Western Cape.
This facility will consist of four Danish
designed wind turbines that will produce 1.3
MW of electricity each, bringing the total
output of the wind farm to 5.2 MW.
This is the first renewable energy power
generating facility to be developed by a private
company which will feed into the national
power network. It will also be the first commercial
wind farm in South Africa. (The three turbines
installed by Eskom last year is a research
project).
It is of great significance that this country
is now actively on the road to utilising renewable
sources of energy generation. This is a very
important first step in our endeavours towards
cleaner production and is of special importance
so soon after the ratification of the Kyoto
protocol.
The project will be developed with financial
assistance from the Danish Government through
Danida, their funding agency. It is being
referred to as the National Demonstration
project, because it will be used as an example
for future public-private partnerships in
the establishment of electricity generation,
which was historically largely the sole domain
of Eskom.
The installation is to be erected below Moedmaag
Hill approximately 12 kilometers from Darling
along the way to Yserfontein on the West Coast.
The structures will be 50 meters high and
the blades will have a span of 31 meters.
This approval was granted after evaluation
of the environmental impact assessment in
terms of the environmental impact regulations
as prescribed by the Environment conservation
Act. This study evaluated the possible negative
and positive environmental impacts, and the
Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism
came to the conclusion that the positive impacts
will far outweigh any possible negative environmental
impacts.
