French agency's loan seeks to encourage localisation of 100-MW SA wind farm
South African power utility Eskom and French development agency Agence Française de Développement (AFD) signed a financing framework agreement at the weekend as a precursor to the conclusion of a €100-million, 20-year loan for the partial financing of Eskom's new wind farm project.
The final capital cost of the project had not yet been disclosed, but it was unlikely to be inexpensive, given that installation costs were rising, due to the increasing global commodity prices.
The utility said in a statement that the 100 MW renewable-energy facllity would be built on the West Coast near the town of Koekenaap, east of Vredendal in the Western Cape and would be operational early 2010.
The AFD loan stipulated that Eskom made every effort to provide for local industries and labour in the tender structure, which was in line with the utility's Eskom's commitment to the South African government under the so-called competitive Supplier Development Programme.
Engineering News understands that the environmental and commercial activities relating to the development have been under way for some time and that construction should start late in 2008.
Envisaged are horizontal-type turbines with pitch control, gearbox reduction drives and induction generators, with unit sizes of between 1,5 MW and 2,5 MW, which would require about 50 units.
The cost of electricity generated by wind power in South Africa would be between R0,50/kWh and R0,60/kWh, which still compared poorly not only with R0,23/kWh for Eskom's current installed capacity, but even with likely future electricity tariffs, which would be rising.
Eskom said that it had spent time evaluating the various wind technologies available as well as assessing the various associated issues such storage systems, costs and performance data at its wind energy demonstration facility near Klipheuwel outside of Cape Town. It added that the 100-MW commercial project was a first step in applying the information gained and formed part of its overall renewable-energy strategy.
Eskom saw the signing as part of a loner term relationship with AFD that would support its broad climate change strategy and capacity expansion programme.
