Green Economy Journal Issue 60

STRAPHEAD
ENERGY
WIND grabs more provinces as
DEMAND GROWS
The South African wind sector is following a natural evolution, demonstrating the same
trajectory and adjustments as its global market counterparts, with a shift from resource-rich
areas to regions attractive for their ideal transmission connections.
BY NORDEX ENERGY SOUTH AFRICA
The natural evolution is further underpinned by a downward
pricing curve for the cost of energy, more powerful and bigger
turbine generators as well as increased market competitiveness.
In South Africa, this geographic shift outside of the Cape provinces is
driven by the region’s constrained grid capacity, clearly demonstrated
by the government’s last procurement round, REIPPPP’s Bid Window
6, which failed to secure a single wind project.
However, areas such as the Mpumalanga province have available
grid capacity and with more coal generation facilities reaching the
end of their lifetime resulting in their decommissioning, additional
grid capacity in this thermal-power region will open.
The market intelligence clearly indicates that by 2027 new wind
power generation projects will become concentrated in grid-rich
areas, with KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga emerging as important
wind jurisdictions, within the next five years. The South African
Renewable Energy Grid Survey, released in June 2023, shows stable
and constant growth in wind projects being developed in these new
zones, which is vital for the industry – especially if the country is to
be successful in its plan to industrialise the renewable energy sector.
“Original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) such as ourselves, as
well as both local and global investors, prefer a consistent pipeline
of projects for long-term investment decision-making. While we are
able to meet the technology needs of lower wind-resourced areas,
it is challenging to operate within a market that isn’t reinforced by
clear supportive policy and consistent closure of projects without
delays,” says Compton Saunders, managing director of Nordex
Energy South Africa.
In preparation to meet market needs, Nordex Energy South Africa
introduced technology offering an increase in unitary power, which
means improved cost of energy, as well as a reduction in land usage
and visual impact.
In addition to more powerful generating platforms, taller towers
are necessary to capture better wind conditions at higher altitudes,
in areas such as Mpumalanga. To date, most wind turbine towers
in South Africa have been 80 to 120 metres tall, but as we shift into
new regions, this will need to increase.
Looking at the global market, OEMs such as Nordex are working on
projects with hybrid towers of 168m hub height with this technology
available to the local South African market. There are also various
tower technologies between 120m to 200m that are either available
or under development.
These 168m hybrid towers that could be offered in this market
comprise around 100m concrete sections that would be locally
manufactured, and the balance of (68m) steel sections that can be
manufactured locally or imported.
“Our industry is going to require large volumes of wind turbine
components in a relatively short space of time and the potential
overlapping construction programmes could result in greater
logistical considerations. The majority of the components will arrive
on a vessel before being offloaded and then stored close to the
port before road transportation to the final installation destination
commences. We already know that the availability of land in ports
or close to ports could be a challenge and that the ability to handle
large volumes through single entry and exit gates will be hindered
by congestion,” says Saunders.
He continues, “Another consideration is that the longer blade
lengths that we’ll need to bring into the country require specialised
trailer sets, which will need to be sourced abroad and will then
require licensing locally. And, with the uncertainty and continuous
delays in our country’s renewables market, the timing of investment
decisions is very tricky.”
Members of the Nordex Energy South Africa Services team on top of one of
the wind turbines at Dorper Wind Farm in Molteno, Eastern Cape.
South Africa can also begin to see the pairing of wind and solar
power plants, meaning that a single transmission connection point
may be used to provide Eskom with the increased uptake of power
at a particular point.
It has been proven in global energy markets that the co-location
of wind, solar PV and energy storage technologies offers more
stable, predictable and dispatchable power output, and the option
of shared grid connections makes sense in the efforts to optimise
the current grid infrastructure.
“Hybridisation of facilities brings extra value in terms of grid
utilisation. It is especially remarkable when the generation of both
wind and solar PV technologies are complementary, and the combined
curve matches the power demand. Our global counterparts have
experience for us to draw on, and we will do so in new South African
regions if this brings value to our customers,” Saunders concludes.
Case studies in the country show that the generation peak hours
of wind facilities are early in the morning and late evening time,
which combined with the generation curve of solar facilities, bring
an overall curve matching quite well with the demand.
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