South Africa's first wind farm to power England's crucial group match on June 23rd

South Africa’s first ever commercial wind farm will be providing the power to the Nelson Mandela Bay Football Stadium in Port Elizabeth for England’s crucial final group match against Slovenia in this year’s World Cup tournament.

The energy will be provided free of charge to FIFA from the 45MW wind farm which will incorporate 25 turbines when complete. The farm’s first turbine has been connected to the national grid, a 1.8MW Vestas V90 turbine which has been under construction since May and will provide 5,700,000 kWh of renewable energy per year (enough for about 1,000 UK homes).

Practical Action has been pushing renewable energy in sub-Saharan Africa and other countries around the world. Presently about half of the world’s population live without electricity and in Africa, four out of five families go without. This lack of energy traps people in a cycle of poverty from which they are unable to escape, denying them adequate healthcare, education and the ability to earn a living and support their families.

Practical Action has recently received almost €1m in funding from the EU for projects to tackle energy access in poor communities in Southern Africa where it is taking advantage of the region’s rugged terrain and fast-flowing rivers by implementing a series of small scale micro-hydro systems to provide lighting and electricity to remote rural communities for the first time in their lives.

Just one micro-hydro scheme can generate up to 100kW of energy – enough to drive a mill and provide hundreds of families with electricity and lighting for their homes as well as local schools and health centres.

Helen Marsh, Energy Campaigner at Practical Action said: “The arrival of South Africa’s first ever commercial wind farm is fantastic news and we hope it will become a blueprint for similar projects across the continent. The number of people living without access to energy in Africa is frightening and something we are working hard to reduce through a number of renewable energy projects.” 

Further reading:

• Small wind energy systems for battery charging - in-depth paper on wind power based on Practical Action's experiences (PDF, 74K)
• Practical Action Technical Briefs Practical documents on wind for electricity generation, including: Energy from the Wind overview, Fibre-glass Wind Turbine Blade manufacturing guide, Permanent Magnet Generator manual, Wind Electricity Generation factsheet, Windpumping principles
• illustrated guide to the local manufacture of turbines for wind charging (PDF, 98K)
• Wind Rotor Blade Construction (PDF, 332K)
• Small Wind Energy Systems for Battery Charging (PMG Manual) (PDF, 930K)

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