The Khobab Wind Farm was contracted under the South African Government’s Round 3 Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme, achieving commercial operation in December 2017.

The site is adjacent to Lekela’s Loeriesfontein 2 wind farm and was chosen because of its strong wind resource and excellent backing from the local community and municipality.

Like Loeriesfontein 2, the wind farm comprises of 61 Siemens SWT-2.3-108 wind turbines with a total output of 140 megawatts. Siemens is also employed under a long-term service arrangement to ensure the project achieves world class levels of operational performance.

Each turbine reaches an overall height of 152m at its tip and has 3 blades each 53m long made from fibreglass reinforced epoxy.

The towers used at the site were manufactured in Atlantis (in the Western Cape of South Africa) in three sections, each requiring a 1000km, four day journey to site. Transporting such large components to site required careful and complex logistics to minimise the disruption and ensure the safety of other road users.

The Khobab wind farm provides approximately 563,500 MWh each year of clean, economic and renewable energy to the national grid – enough to provide clean, renewable power for around 170,000 average South African households. The wind farm will help South Africa avoid approximately 550,000 tonnes of carbon emissions each year when compared to traditional fossil fuel power plants.

The wind farm is active in the community and at the peak of construction activities it employed 450 workers from the local community.

It is anticipated that over the life of the wind farm, over ZAR 411m will be invested in community led socio-economic and economic development projects in the local area. Investments already carried out in the community, jointly with the Loeriesfontein 2 wind farm, include a local childhood development programme and the creation of opportunities for economic development through the provision of 24 scholarships for the local community.

For more information about the Khobab wind farm, visit https://khobabwind.co.za/