Vestas bags South Africa turbine order as nation looks to wind to ease power woes
Danish group to supply V136 machines to project against background of urgent need for clean capacity
Denmark’s Vestas has bagged a 144MW turbine order for a South African project as the nation looks to wind to ease its power system woes.
African Clean Energy Developments (ACED) has placed a 144MW order for its Khangela Emoyeni wind farm in the province of Western Cape, Vestas announced today.
The contract includes the supply and installation of 32 V163-4.5MW turbines and a 10-year service agreement.
This is ACED’s second order for V163-4.5MW wind turbines in 2024. In June, Vestas said they placed a 144MW order for another wind farm in the same province on the country’s southwestern coast.
Turbine delivery is expected by the first half of 2025 and commissioning is planned for the first half of 2026.
Vestas says it is one of the leaders in the South African wind power market with over 1.5GW of capacity either installed or under construction.
Ongoing failures concerning grid allocation are causing “significant delays and financial losses, devastating investor confidence and jeopardising the success of wind energy projects,” said the association.
South Africa has suffered rolling blackouts in recent years, with much of the blame being attributed to “load shedding” outages by state-run utility Eskom’s fleet of coal and gas-fired power stations.
Anger about blackouts contributed to the loss of an outright majority for the ruling African National Congress in May elections.
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