On Thursday, 15 February, Grocott’s Mail published an article about the windfarms (see link): https://grocotts.ru.ac.za/2024/02/15/ill-placed-wind-farms-a-blow-to-heritage-wildlife-in-makhanda-and-eastern-cape/
EDF Renewables responded to the article with the following reply:
Albany Wind Farm – bringing clean energy, loadshedding relief, and employment opportunities to the greater Makhanda community
In the face of severe loadshedding, South Africa has recognised the need to expand electricity generation capacity within the country. There is also a growing urgency to move to green energy technologies related to concerns about climate change leading to the accelerated exploitation of non-renewable resources. Wind and solar power offer a clean and efficient solution to rapidly meet the country’s urgent energy requirements, as these projects can be built over a period of 18 to 24 months once fully permitted.
The Eastern Cape, with its excellent wind generation, offers an ideal location for producing renewable wind power for South Africa. EDF Renewables, a global leader in renewable energy, has several wind farms operational in the province and is currently proposing to construct a new wind farm – Albany Wind Power (Pty) Ltd plans to develop, construct and operate a Wind Energy Facility (WEF) approximately seven kilometres east of Makhanda/ Grahamstown in the Eastern Cape Province. The proposed Albany WEF will consist of up to twenty-five (25) turbines and facility infrastructure with a total footprint of up to 45 ha.
The wind farm had secured an Environmental Authorisation, which is currently being appealed by Indalo and the Kwandwe game reserves, primarily due to the concerns they have surrounding the visual impact.
The Albany wind farm is located on Municipal land with commonage conditions in favour of small-scale farmers, private landowners and 4 Community Property Associations, which were the beneficiaries of a land restitution program in 2004. These impoverished communities will all benefit from rental payments, in addition to the job creation opportunities during the construction phase, followed by social and economic upliftment programmes during the operational life of the facility and will contribute towards relief from loadshedding, which will benefit the greater Makhanda region.
There has been strong opposition to the project, driven primarily by the interests and concerns of private game reserves in the area, almost exclusively serving the international market. In the face of recent appeals against the project, it is important to clear up several misperceptions being disseminated by project opponents and to review the real far-reaching benefits of the project to the greater Makhanda Community.
Albany Wind Farm Project Information
- Scoping & Environmental Impact Assessment: Albany Wind Farm has complied fully with all Scoping and Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) requirements for project approval. Biodiversity impacts have been assessed and documented by suitably qualified and experienced independent specialists. A formal Scoping and Environmental Impact Assessment process was undertaken from June 2018 until March 2022. During this period, full impact assessment studies included specialist assessments that specifically considered the impact of the facility on agriculture, avifauna, bats, terrestrial biodiversity, heritage, noise, palaeontology, socio-economic, traffic, as well as any visual impact. Bat pre-construction monitoring was conducted in accordance with Best Practice Guidelines (Sowler et al.) and Avifaunal pre-construction monitoring also in accordance with the latest Best Practice Guidelines (Jenkins et al., 2015), each for a period of four seasons.
- During the EIA process, the appointed environmental consultant, CES, conducted three rounds of 30 days of public participation, which is already one more round than what is required under NEMA for an EIA. We are now in the 4th round of public participation (30 days + 20 days extension granted by DFFE to appellants) following the issuance of the Minister’s decision on the appeals submitted by Kwandwe and Indalo.
- The impact on biodiversity has been studied in depth by specialists and is contained in the Albany EIR. Both the EAP and the applicant who has assessed numerous wind energy projects can confirm that Albany is clearly not amongst the most impactful wind energy projects on biodiversity.
- The formal Scoping and EIA process was concluded, and the Environmental Authorisation was granted by the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) on 18 March 2022. The decision was appealed. On 9 October 2023, the Minister of Environmental Affairs issued an interim appeal decision, which instructed the Applicant to go through the process of finalising the Layout and EMPr.
- An Environmental Management Programme (EMPr) and Layout Process: An EMPr is currently being undertaken in accordance with the Minister’s interim appeal decision. The Appeal Period was from 23 March 2022 until 12 April 2022. During this time, and subsequent to the approval of a timeframe extension, four groups of appellants submitted appeals against the DFFE decision contained in the EA. These appeals are ongoing, and CES is not in a position to make any changes to the PPP process for the EMPr and Layout Finalisation, which has been clearly defined by the Minister unless specifically instructed by the Minister.
- Proximity to Addo Elephant Park: It is important to note that Albany Wind Farm is not situated anywhere near the Addo Elephant National Park. Its closest turbine is located approximately 120km from the park fence, roughly the distance from Makhanda to Nelson Mandela Bay.
- Visual Impact: A full visual impact assessment study was undertaken as part of the EIA process. The EMPr and Layout finalisation process, as instructed by the Minister in the interim appeal decision, included visual ground truthing, which compared the authorised 43 turbines to a revised final layout of 25 turbines. The 25 turbines are no larger than those originally proposed (See Final Layout image). The overall layout has been designed to minimise visual impact on the surrounding landscape. In order to further reduce the visual impact of the flashing turbine aviation warning lights at night, all turbines will be equipped with radar-activated lighting systems that will only light up at night if an aeroplane or helicopter is approaching the wind energy facility.
- Socio-Economic Development: Approximately 2% of turnover will be spent on socio-economic and enterprise development programmes. Albany Wind Power intends to promote local economic growth and development through direct and indirect employment, as well as the identification and implementation of social development schemes during the project’s operational phase. Approximately 2% of turnover will be spent on socio-economic and enterprise development programmes. The project expects to generate an extensive number of temporary and permanent jobs and concurrently provide small business development opportunities.
- Job creation: During Construction, the project can potentially create up to 900 jobs at peak, with about 300 job opportunities for general workers from local communities and the remaining part of the workforce split between specialised and non-specialised skilled workers who will be sourced from surrounding areas. With similar projects already in operation in the target area and an abundance of higher learning institutions, we anticipate a more elevated pool of skilled labourers, which will increase the participation rate of the number of local community workers. During the operations period, the projects require a minimal number of workers, with about 20 people expected to run all the operations.
- Procurement: The project will spend circa R40 million on small businesses where they can deliver on the set scopes of work. Priority will be placed on procuring from local black-owned entities, with a specific focus on local and black women-owned enterprises.
- Protected Area Expansion Impact: To the Applicant’s knowledge, the Makana municipality, the commonage farmers, the private landowners and 4 CPAs that are landowners to the proposed Albany WEF have not agreed to eco-tourism or protected area expansion projects on their properties. Assuming that their land can be expropriated without their consent is misguided and untrue.
Waainek wind farm – a case study in the positive impact of the wind farm on the area
The Waainek wind farm, located 6 km Southwest of Grahamstown, became commercially operational on 10 January 2016 and has been supplying both Eskom and the citizens of Makhanda with renewable energy for over eight years. The wind farm has an installed capacity of 24.6 MW, which equates to the consumption of roughly 20 000 South African households. The project consists of 8 x 3 MW wind turbines by the manufacturer ‘Vestas’ with 84m hub height and 112m rotor diameter. The project was developed by EDF Renewables (formerly ‘InnoWind’). It is currently operated and owned by Waainek Wind Power (Pty) Ltd, which is owned by EDF Renewables (60%), IDC (14%) and Makana Winds of Change Community Trust (26%).
Since Waainek is directly embedded in the Makana 66kV electrical grid, it helped reduce scheduled load shedding in Makhanda by more than 50% on average (based on historical data). In practical terms, Eskom suspends load shedding each time the generation of the wind farm exceeds the consumption by Makhanda. According to the Makana Municipality, Makhanda’s peak winter demand amounts to 22 MW, which is similar to the 24MW production by Waainek at full capacity (almost half of the time). The wind farm also acts as a capacitor bank, which significantly improves the power quality on the municipal grid by reducing voltage fluctuations.
The wind farm is also severely impacted by load shedding, resulting in significant production losses (when load shedding does go ahead) and increased strain on equipment. Essentially, Waainek is disconnected from the grid when Grahamstown is being load shed, and the production from the wind farm is less than Makhanda’s consumption. Feasibility studies for a range of technical solutions are being sought. The main purpose is to increase overall grid availability, while ensuring that all residents in Makhanda equally share the burden of load shedding. Furthermore, Makana is remunerated by Waainek for wheeling power through the municipal grid and is required to use these funds to further invest in the maintenance of its electrical infrastructure.
The construction of the Waainek wind farm was completed ahead of schedule, and so it became operational before the Power Purchase Agreement with Eskom commenced. As such, between August and November 2015, Waainek fed 16 638 MWh of free electricity into the municipal grid.
A total of 248 jobs were created during its construction phase (South African citizens). As soon as the wind farm became operational, Waainek started contributing 2.1% of its revenue towards Socio-Economic Development (‘’SED’’) and Enterprise Development (‘’EnD’’) initiatives within a 50km radius of the Wind Farm.
Waainek has run several Grassroots Youth Development and SED programmes aimed at improving digital connectivity, entrepreneurship, social upliftment, and social integration in the community, especially focusing on assisting the youth. A successful WiFi project comprising the installation of WiFi hotspots at schools, libraries and clinics across the area has provided free access to the internet and connectivity to the broader community. In addition, a mobile phone repair skills programme was initiated, and a mobile phone repair shop was established.
