China Longyuan Power to build 244MW wind farms

Wind power producer China Longyuan Power has been selected as preferred bidder for the development of two wind farms with a total capacity of up to 244MW in South Africa.

The projects, which was awarded by the South African Ministry of Energy under the third round of the country’s Renewable Energy Procurement Programme, will be built in two phases including the 100MW De Aar Phase I and 144MW De Aar Phase II North District in North Cape Province.

The company will jointly developed the projects with Mulilo Renewable Energy and Black Community Company.

In cooperation with Guodian United, China Longyuan Power, which acts as the controlling shareholder, has won the projects under the support and guidance of China Guodian Corporation.

Construction of the wind farms will be funded by a local bank consortium.

The projects will include 67 and 96 wind turbines of 1.5MW each produced by Guodian United Power and associated infrastructure and will supply their output to the Eskom electricity network once complete.

The country has launched the bid for renewable energy sources in August 2011.

The ministry has issued three biding rounds so far and the first two rounds witnessed a total wind power bidding capacity of 3.5GW and the final capacity is nearly 1.2GW.