The company building South Africa’s biggest wind farms

Energy group Enel Green Power (Enel GP) has built seven wind farms in South Africa, contributing over 900MW to South Africa’s renewable energy generation.
Based in Italy, Enel has built renewable energy plants worldwide, including wind, solar, hydroelectric, biomass, geothermal, and energy storage plants.
It has a total installed capacity of 63,637MW across 1,360 plants in North America, South America, Africa, Europe, Asia, and Australia.
Enel GP says it saved 69.97 million tonnes of carbon emissions in 2023 alone by generating over 63GW of renewable energy.
Hydroelectric power accounts for most of its global capacity, at 28,758MW; wind is second, at 22,057MW, and solar is third, at 15,525MW.
However, wind is the most prominent form of energy generation in South Africa, with seven operational wind farms and another three in the works.
Enel GP also has five solar plants, ranging in size from 10MW to 83MW, contributing a capacity of 324MW.
Of the seven largest wind farms in the country, Enel GP has developed five. Three are in the Northern Cape, and four are in the Eastern Cape.
The 913MW of capacity the wind farms offer South Africa’s grid contributes 3,381GWh of energy production per year.
Enel’s largest wind plants in the country are Soetwater Wind Farm and Karusa Wind Farm, both located in the Northern Cape. Both have a capacity of 147MW.
The only other wind farm in the country that is similar in capacity is the Roggeveld Wind Farm, owned by Red Rocket and located near Soetwater and Karusa. Its capacity is also 147MW.
For reference, Enel’s largest wind farm worldwide is the Lagoa dos Ventos Wind Farm in Piauí, Brazil, which has a capacity of 605.7MW and is under construction for another 296.4MW.
The plant has 230 wind turbines generating 3.3TWh per year. Once completed, it will have a capacity just below Enel’s entire South African wind capacity.
The other plant in the Northern Cape is Garob Wind Farm, which has a 140MW capacity and generates 573GWh per year. This brings Enel’s combined Northern Cape capacity to 434MW.
This is enough energy to power 216,724 households for an entire year.
The rest of Enel’s plants are all located in the Eastern Cape, comprising 479MW of capacity.
Oyster Bay and Gibson Bay wind farms are located next to each other, near the town of Humansdorp. They have capacities of 140MW and 111MW, respectively.

Enel’s Gibson Bay Wind Farm in the Eastern Cape.
Enel GP was awarded the tender for the Oyster Bay plant in 2015 while it was starting construction on the Gibson Bay farm.
Both wind farms took two years to complete, with Oyster Bay beginning construction in 2019.
The other two plants located in the Eastern Cape are Nxuba and Nojoli. These two plants are also positioned next to each other and contribute capacities of 140MW and 88MW, respectively.
Unlike Nxuba, Nojoli’s construction took a single year, starting in 2015.
The capacity of Enel GP’s Eastern Cape wind farms can power 360,333 households annually.
In addition to the seven wind farms that Enel GP operates, it is currently developing three more, known as Impofu North, Impofu West, and Impofu East, each with a capacity of 112.1 MW.
Once these farms have reached completion, Enel GP’s total wind capacity will be 1,250MW.
The table below shows each wind farm along with its capacity and province where it is located.
Wind farm | Province | Capacity (MW) | Yearly capacity (GWh) |
---|---|---|---|
Soetwater | Northern Cape | 147 | 585 |
Karusa | Northern Cape | 147 | 500 |
Garob | Northern Cape | 140 | 573 |
Oyster Bay | Eastern Cape | 140 | 568 |
Nxuba | Eastern Cape | 140 | 460 |
Gibson Bay | Eastern Cape | 111 | 420 |
Nojoli | Eastern Cape | 88 | 275 |
Total capacity | 913 | 3,381 |

Enel’s Karusa Wind Farm in the Northern Cape

Enel’s Nojoli Wind Farm in the Eastern Cape