South Africa's largest wind farms

[Jan]

Largest wind farms in South Africa — and how they stack up against the world's biggest

South Africa's biggest wind power plant comprises two sister facilities in the Northern Cape — Khobab and Loeriesfontein 2 — with a maximum generating capacity of just over 283MW.

Lekela Power constructed the two adjacent onshore wind farms as part of the third bid window of the Independent Power Producers (IPP) Procurement Programme.

 

[Tomtomtom]

with a maximum generating capacity of just over 283MW.

Ja we hear a lot about how much renewables can generate in theory.

Since we're jumping all over Eskom for their poor EAF it's only fair we hear how much energy the IPP renewables actually generate themselves, vs. nameplate maximum.

Both wind farms can generate around 563,500MWh of electricity every year, enough to support the energy needs of roughly 340,000 average South African households.

Which presumably comes from the plant's own marketing material (https://khobabwind.co.za/khobab-wind-farm/overview/)

When operating at full capacity, the 140MW Khobab Wind Farm generates around 563,500 MWh/year

And how often is that?

Edit: they seem to be using a capacity factor of about 46%. So it's fairer to say the 140 MW plant is about 64 MW at "full capacity". But still, when? All year? My guess is it's closer to 30% over a year, i.e. ~40 MW, less than a single turbine at Steenbras.

Edit: Also interested to know where they keep the battery plant or the CCGTs that they run when the wind isn't blowing at all, so that they can provide some dispatchability for our grid - because that's literally the thing we need right now - energy on demand and not at some random future point.

 

[system32]

Plenty of Wind potential

 

[Tomtomtom]

Plenty of Wind potential

And no place to store it.

 

[AntennaMan]

Ja we hear a lot about how much renewables can generate in theory.

Since we're jumping all over Eskom for their poor EAF it's only fair we hear how much energy the IPP renewables actually generate themselves, vs. nameplate maximum.



Which presumably comes from the plant's own marketing material (https://khobabwind.co.za/khobab-wind-farm/overview/)



And how often is that?

Edit: Also interested to know where they keep the CCGTs that they run when the wind isn't blowing, so that they can provide some dispatchability for our grid - because that's literally the thing we need right now - energy on demand and not at some random future point.

Agreed. Instead of saying that they can generate up to X MWh / year, it should say that Y MWh / year was generated in 2022.

 

[RaptorSA]

Yoh, adds riding dirtbike through that farm to my bucket list.
The arrest will be worth it.

 

[wingnut771]

 

[dualmeister]