S.African community blazes a trail for local wind power
20 Aug 2010 09:40:00 GMT
By Fidelis Zvomuya
EMAFENGWINI, South Africa (AlertNet) - With powerful wind gusts
whipping across its plains, Emafengwini, a poor rural community in
South Africa's Eastern Cape, has become the new frontier for local
power schemes.
On a cool and breezy stretch of land along the Indian Ocean, 147 km
from the coastal town of East London, South Africa's first community
wind farm is being built, following the completion of an environmental
impact assessment.
The Tsitsikamma wind farm project will implant 20 wind turbines, each
80 metres tall, over 7,000 hectares of Wittekleibosch farmland at a
cost of 1 billion rand ($138 million).
The windmills will each produce 2 megawatts of electricity, which is
expected to light more than 400,000 homes, include those of the Mfengu
community who own the land but don't yet have access to electric power.
The Mfengus were forced off their land in 1977 and moved to Ciskei's
Keiskammahoek under the apartheid regime.
They began negotiating for the return of their land in 1990 and, after
four years of discussions and court applications, their bid succeeded.
The farm was allocated to more than 100,000 families in 1994 under a
government land reform programme.
LOCAL BENEFITS
The community remains extremely poor, however, and lacks work and
education opportunities. The nearest school is at least 25km away.
Unemployment is high and local people become desperate in times of
drought.
They are looking to the wind project to help turn their fortunes
around. It will be run by a consortium including the Tsitsikamma
Community Trust, which represents them.
The trust will own at least 10 percent of the project's equity, and
receive an equivalent proportion of revenue during the plant's 25-year
lifespan.
Its partners are Exxaro Resources, Danish wind turbine manufacturer
Vestas, the Danish Export Credit Fund, the Danish Industrialisation
Fund for Developing Countries, Danish energy company Dong Energy,
Denmark-based power producer European Energy and Eastern Cape
Community Wind Energy.
The Danish Export Credit Fund will provide start-up loans for inputs
and other materials, and Dong Energy will purchase carbon credits
generated by the scheme.
"From the carbon trading, there will be money to build a clinic, a
school, roads and water infrastructure and of course to bring
electricity to the people," explains Thobile Makamba, chairperson of
the Tsitsikamma Community Trust.
DANISH CONNECTIONS
The wind project was initiated by Port Elizabeth company Watt Energy,
which is owned by Nelson Mandela Bay municipal councillor Mcebisi Msizi.
Msizi spent seven years in exile in Denmark during the apartheid era,
and his contacts in the European country, a global leader in wind
energy, are a key driver of the Tsitsikamma deal.
As a child growing up in Emafengwini village, one of Msizi's chief
memories is of the wind. It is so fierce - even on a calm summer's day
- it threatens to propel your car into the Tsitsikamma mountains.
The area is judged to be the second windiest in the country, says Msizi.
The trust's Makamba is hopeful the community will be transformed by
the scheme. "We are going to contribute our land and the abundant wind
we have here," he says.
By 2013, the wind farm is expected to produce 40 megawatts of
electricity, which will be sold to state-owned power company Eskom. It
will be transferred to Eskom's power grid through a new sub-station to
be built nearby at an estimated cost of more than R100 million,
explains Msizi.
"The aim is that the community will benefit from a share of the R14-
million annual revenue, which will come from selling the electricity
generated to Eskom at an agreed buy-back rate of R1.25 a kilowatt," he
says.
The project is also expected to create more than 1,500 jobs for local
people in constructing roads, erecting the turbines and maintaining
them once they are up. And it has brought people from different
backgrounds - financiers, technology providers, entrepreneurs -
together with the local community.
"We've created a new landmark," says Makamba.
FILLING THE POWER GAP
The scheme also brings the country a step closer to boosting its
production of cleaner and renewable energy. South Africa experienced
several blackouts last year due to a coal shortage, which left Eskom
short of supply.
The government is aiming to produce 10,000 gigawatts of energy from
renewable sources by 2013. It is estimated there are some 5,000
megawatts of wind power under development in South Africa, while the
government has mandated the procurement of 40,000 megawatts by 2013.
As yet, the country has only seven commercial-sized wind turbines in
operation, three at Eskom's demonstration facility at Klipheuwel,
north of Cape Town, and four at the private Darling wind farm to the
city's northwest.
If successful, the Tsitsikamma project may be duplicated elsewhere in
the country. Watt Energy has already started discussions with Port
Alfred, Hamburg and Coega, for example.
With demand for electricity outpacing infrastructure in South Africa,
community-based renewable energy schemes like Tsitsikamma have
considerable potential to help plug the country's looming power deficit.
Fidelis Zvomuya, based in Pretoria, South Africa, is a writer
specialising in environmental reporting.
Reuters AlertNet is not responsible for the content of external
websites.
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