The South African Ministry of Energy announced it had awarded another 13 solar panel and wind turbine projects within the context of the so-called “over allocation” of the fourth stage of the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP), after the award in April of contracts for 1,000MW of installed power. In this new round of awards, Enel Green Power took another two wind turbine projects for a capacity of 280MW. The Soetwater (142 MW) and Garob (138 MW) stations will be built in the Northern Cape province and will be operative within 20189, with an overall investment of approximately 340 million EUR. Once fully up to speed the two plants will have a capacity for approximately 1,000MW. To date, a total of 92 projects have been assigned within the context of the REIPPPP since 2012, with investments equal to 193 billion rand (over 14 billion EUR).
Thanks especially to its successes in South Africa, Enel Green Power has strengthened its top ranking position among private operators active on the African continent in the green economy sector. The Soetwater and Garob projects, now to be added to the Oyster Bay (142MW), Nxuba (141MW) and Farusa (142MW) projects, bring the capacity of the plants assigned in the fourth phase of REIPPPP to 705MW. To date, the Italian firm has won public tenders in South Africa for 1,200MW of solar and wind energy, with investments of over 1.5 billion EUR.
