Cabinet has welcomed the commissioning of the final wind turbine, at 140 megawatts, at Nxuba Wind Farm in the Eastern Cape.
The plant is part of the fourth round of the country’s Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme.
“Once all the wind turbines are commissioned, they will produce 460 gigawatt hours per year to the grid, and advance our climate change commitments significantly,” Minister in the Presidency, Jackson Mthembu, said on Thursday.
This is in addition to Eskom’s unit 2 at Kusile power station in Mpumalanga, which will contribute up to 800 megawatts to the power grid.
“Kusile is the first power station in Africa to install flue gas desulphurisation technology – a state-of-the-art technology used to remove oxides of sulphur, such as sulphur dioxide, from exhaust flue gases in power plants that burn coal or oil – which is in line with current international air quality standards,” said Mthembu.
Cabinet welcomed the announcement by Total SA that it has found a significant amount of gas off the southern coast of Mossel Bay in the Western Cape.
“This will contribute towards the country’s efforts to expand power generation to allow the economy to grow and attract more investment,” Mthembu said.
Last month, Total's Exploration and Production President, Arnaud Breuillac, said the company was thrilled with this second discovery.
This latest find follows the adjacent Brulpadda discovery in 2019.
“With this discovery and the successful seismic acquisitions, Total and its partners have acquired important data on the Paddavissie fairway, which will help to progress development studies and engage with South African authorities regarding the possible conditions of the gas commercialisation,” Breuillac said. – SAnews.gov.za
