Italian renewable energy company Enel Green Power has bagged projects for about 420 MW more of wind energy capacity in South Africa.
The company won the projects in the fourth round of auction under South Africa’s Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP).
The 420-megawatt capacity that Enel has added comes from three wind energy projects;
it has won the bid for a 140-MW project in Oyster Bay and another 139-MW project in Nxuba — both in the Eastern Cape province;
the third successful bid was for a 140-MW project in Karusa, Northern Cape province.
Enel is expected to complete its Eastern Cape projects by 2017 and the Northern Cape project in 2018.
In the previous rounds of the REIPPPP auctions, Enel had won bids to develop two wind energy projects with a total capacity of 199 MW.
It also bagged four solar power projects with a total capacity of 314 MW.
Early last month Enel commenced construction on three of the solar energy projects and secured $170 million debt finance from KfW IPEX Bank. This month the company began building its 111 MW Gibson Bay wind project.
In all, Enel now has 938 MW of wind and solar power projects in the pipeline.
Ajith Kumar S
editor@greentechlead.com