{"id":643161,"date":"2026-04-28T07:57:33","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T05:57:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=643161"},"modified":"2026-04-28T10:31:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T08:31:11","slug":"small-south-african-farming-town-famous-for-sweets-beer-and-pieter-dirk-uys-now-a-leader-in-renewable-energy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/energy\/643161-small-south-african-farming-town-famous-for-sweets-beer-and-pieter-dirk-uys-now-a-leader-in-renewable-energy.html","title":{"rendered":"Small South African farming town famous for sweets, beer, and Pieter-Dirk Uys now a leader in renewable energy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The small town of Darling in the Western Cape, famous for its wildflowers, beer brewery, and toffees, served as a critical testing ground for South Africa’s multi-billion-rand renewable energy industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Founded in 1853, Darling was named after Sir Charles Henry Darling, who had become Lieutenant-Governor of the Cape Colony in South Africa in 1851.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prior to its establishment, approximately 29 farmers lived in an area called Groenkloof, and Darling was established on one of those farms: Langfontein.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At its founding, the town served only as a church outpost. However, it grew into a dairy-farming powerhouse in the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of its first major businesses \u2014 the Darling creamery \u2014 was founded in 1899 by two Swedish settlers: Nils Georg Moller and G. Threnstrom. The creamery was closed in 1950.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Darling is renowned for its wildflowers, and since 1917, the Darling Wildflower Society has hosted the annual Darling Wildflower Show at the beginning of Spring in September each year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The small farming town played a key role during World War 2 and the first South African Air Force flying unit to be based in Darling was 23 Squadron, which arrived at the beginning of 1943.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In November 1943, Ventura aircraft of the 29 Operation Training Unit were relocated from Nigel to Darling. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In January 1944, construction of an iron hangar in Darling began, intended to ease maintenance problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The use of Darling’s airfield started tapering off after the conclusion of World War 2 as Air Force Base Langebaanweg became the hub of South African Air Force operations on the West Coast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Darling is also known as the town in which satirist Pieter-Dirk Uys has performed and continues to perform many of his shows as Evita Bezuidenhout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The town is home to Uys’s Evita se Perron<\/em> venue, a repurposing of Darling’s old railway station in 1996. The venue is adjacent to an arts and crafts market run by the Darling Trust.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, Darling resembles a quirky, artistic hub that balances dairy and olive farming with a strong influx of tourists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is home to the well-known Darling Craft Brewery and the Darling Sweet company, which is famous for its toffee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A testing site for South Africa’s wind energy industry<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Wind turbines near Darling in the Western Cape. Photo credit: Bergstan South Africa<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Situated on the Moedmaag Hill, approximately 12km to the north-west of Darling, lies the Darling Wind Farm, which was commissioned in May 2008 as a national demonstration project for wind energy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The wind farm was established through a joint venture between the City of Cape Town, the Central Energy Fund, and the Development Bank of Southern Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2008, the idea of feeding renewable energy into the national grid was largely theoretical. No regulatory framework existed, and the project infamously took nearly a decade from conception to commissioning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The facility has served as a living laboratory proving that independent power producers can safely integrate wind energy into the national electricity grid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The farm features four Fuhrl\u00e4nder FL1250 turbines, with a combined capacity of 5.2MW. While a small capacity by today’s standards for wind farms, it served as a crucial testing ground for wind energy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The site has also acted as a guinea pig for Environmental Impact Assessments, Power Purchase Agreements, and performance testing in South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Engineers use the wind farm to benchmark the minimum wind speeds at which turbines begin generating energy, as well as protocols for managing high winds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Darling Wind Farm has become an academic hub, with data from the plant enabling institutions like the University of Cape Town to refine wind energy models.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Such research has enabled developers to predict and model energy yields with a high degree of accuracy, which has been crucial in securing international financing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Darling Wind Farm<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Turbines at the Darling Wind Farm<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Darling Wind Farm. Photographer: Warrenski \/ Flickr<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Darling Wind Farm. Photographer: David Sasaki \/ Flickr<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n

The small town of Darling in the Western Cape<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
The Darling Craft Brewery. Photographer: Darling Brewery<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
An array of Darling Sweets toffees<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Darling Lodge. Photographer: Grobler du Preez \/ Shutterstock.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Shop at Evita se Perron in Darling, Western Cape. Photographer: Grobler du Preez \/ Shutterstock.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
The Jeria Mission near Darling, Western Cape. Photographer: Grobler du Preez \/ Shutterstock.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
The belfry and bell of the Presbyterian Church in Darling. Photographer: Grobler du Preez \/ Shutterstock.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Field of flowers in Darling. Photographer: Jana Hattingh \/ Shutterstock.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Landscape around Darling in the Western Cape. Photographer: Bildagentur Zoonar GmbH \/ Shutterstock.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Landscape around Darling in the Western Cape. Photographer: Bildagentur Zoonar GmbH \/ Shutterstock.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Vineyards near Darling in the Western Cape. Photographer: Arnold Petersen \/ Shutterstock.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Cape Dutch-style farmhouse at Ormonde Cellar, Darling. Photographer: Arnold Petersen \/ Shutterstock.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Darling in the Western Cape may be more famous for its wildflowers, craft beer, and toffees, but has also served as a testing ground for wind power in South Africa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341076,"featured_media":643179,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27995],"tags":[104795,104797,104796,104794,19524,22333,84917],"class_list":["post-643161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-energy","tag-darling","tag-darling-brew","tag-darling-sweets","tag-darling-wind-farm","tag-wind-farm","tag-wind-power","tag-wind-turbines"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643161"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341076"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=643161"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643161\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":643834,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643161\/revisions\/643834"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/643179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=643161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=643161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=643161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}