The price of electricity generated by the proposed Waainek wind farm is expected to be significantly higher than that of Eskom.
The price of electricity generated by the proposed Waainek wind farm is expected to be significantly higher than that of Eskom.
This emerged from a well-attended debate held last week Thursday at the Rhodes Zoology lecture theatre. Nick Fox from Sibuya Game Reserve, who is opposed to the wind farm, stated that wind power would cost as much as R3 per unit as opposed to Eskom’s current charge of 44 cents.
A strong backer of the project, sustainable entrepreneur Dr Garth Cambray disputed this, saying that the estimated cost of wind power would be R1.25 per unit (see sidebar).
Because of Eskom’s price hikes, Cambray felt local economies needed to start diversifying power supplies in order to survive, highlighting the advantages of the Waainek area for such a purpose.
The area’s wind regime, he said, “echoes the Makana Municipality’s energy demands”. Each turbine produces 3MW and Cambray hopes for eight to nine turbines to be installed.
It was estimated in April that the minimum demand on the Makana municipal grid was 5MW and the maximum between 18 and 22MW.
Despite this, Fox suggested solar power as a more viable and effective option. CEO of the Wilderness Foundation and Leadership School, Andrew Muir stressed the importance of eco-based tourism in the Eastern Cape as it is a major revenue and generates up to R110-billion a year.
Game reserves also employ four times the number of people as agriculture, which was what the land was previously used for.
Along with this, 90% of employees are local and get paid twice the minimum wage. Muir also highlighted impacts the wind farm could have on the landscape and wildlife.
Birds and bats are known to be affected by wind farms. Cambray, however, says that the turbines can be shut down during the bat run and ultra sound beacons can be installed to deter them.
Dr Frederik Vorster, from the Centre of Energy Research and Senior Lecturer of the Physics Department at NMMU said that in a study done by the National Academy of Sciences, “wind farms account for less than 1% of roughly one billion (or ten million) bird deaths caused each year by collisions into buildings, power lines and communication towers.”
The visual impact of the wind farms was also debated. Game farm owners performed a view shed analysis (the distance from which a structure can be seen) and results showed that the reserves would be visually impacted.
Vorster, however, felt that wind farms can be seen as a thing of beauty and elegance or “symbols of a better, less polluted future”.
He added that we have become accustomed to roads, telephone lines and power lines which have cut through our landscapes, and that the same could be done with the turbines.
Fox, who advocates solar power as an alternative, stated that wind farms only worked when it was windy, and that the power generated from them could not be stored.
While Vorster said wind farms are only 30% effective, South Africa still has potential. While Germany produces 22 247 MW of wind power and South Africa only 10MW, it has the potential, with more wind farms, to produce up to 40 000 MW.
Muir highlighted the impact turbine noise could have, and said that no research has been done so far on whether the ground vibrations from the turbines would effect elephant communication methods.
Vorster assured the audience, however, that most of the sound, other than the swish of the blades, is contained within the structure (called a nacelle) with isolation materials. Vorster added that the sound at the base of the turbine was less than that of a passing car.
Coastal and nvironmental Services have been appointed by InnoWind to conduct an Environmental Impact Assessment for the construction and operation of the Waainek wind farm.
The Draft Environmental Impact Report (EIR) and Draft Environmental Management Plan (EMP) are available for public review and comment.
The review period is from 23 April till 23 May. The documents are available at the Grahamstown Public Library, Rhodes University Library, Makana Local Municipality (Municipal Offices, High Street) and at the CES
