Windpower Monthly
While parts of sub-Saharan Africa are providing piecemeal opportunities to international wind developers, South Africa entered a league of its own in 2014 as a fully-fledged wind market.
It reached 575MW commissioned by end-2014, against just 10MW online a year earlier, according to the South African Wind Energy Association (SAWEA). The rest of the sub-Sahara region has 324MW online combined, according to the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC).
South African programme starts to deliver
In South Africa, SAWEA tallies an additional 625MW under construction, of which 505MW is scheduled for connection this year. All capacity building comes from the 2011 first round (651MW) and 2012 second round (787MW) calls to tender for wind development, under the government's 2010 renewable energy independent power producers programme (REIPPP).
First online in 2015 was the 62MW Grassridge project, developed by French utility EDF Energies Nouvelles and commissioned in February. Next will probably be the 80MW Kouga development
