the cookhouse wind farm

How Renewable Energy Is Quietly Stealing A March on Coal

This report is made possible by a new Guardian and Alliance Earth Partnership.

Solar, biomass and wind energy systems are popping up all over the country and feeding clean energy into the strained electrical grid.

Renewable energy in South Africa now ccount for about 1/10th of the country's electricity supply after only three years of implementation.
Journalist Jeffrey Barbee atop a wind turbine near Cookhouse, South Africa.  Renewable energy in South Africa now count for about 1/10th of the country’s electricity supply after only three years of implementation.

Excerpted from the Guardian Newspaper.

June 1st, 2015

By Jeffrey Barbee for the #keepitintheground campaign.

The howling wind drives the turbines, their blades bent back from the force as they spin in the evening light and send electricity to local villages in South Africa’s Eastern Cape.

High up on the top of the turbine, local resident Lungela Vongu, dressed in a safety harness and hard hat leans far out over the 100 meter drop to check that the wind speed detector is working properly. “This wind farm is bringing a lot more jobs into this community for the people, without it there is no future here,” he says.

The Cookhouse wind farm is the biggest wind system built in Africa, with 66 turbines generating 138MW of clean power. It started feeding the grid at the end of 2014 and it is far from unique.

Although still heavily dependent on fossil fuels, South Africa has been quietly creating one of the world’s most progressive alternative energy plans. Solar, biomass and wind energy systems are popping up all over the country and feeding clean energy into the strained electrical grid.

“It is set to completely transform these deep rural communities in terms of healthcare, education, job creation and a raft of other interventions. All this while putting green electricity on the grid at affordable prices,” said Johan van den Berg, director of the South African Wind Energy Association.

Read the rest of the story on the Guardian website here.

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This report is made possible by a new Guardian and Alliance Earth Partnership.

 

3 thoughts on “How Renewable Energy Is Quietly Stealing A March on Coal

  1. Nick Tedesco says:

    It cannot be stressed enough that the primary driving factor for the fact that wind and solar power are gaining on coal is because these clean and renewable sources of energy are now cost competitive. As the costs for renewable energy continue to fall, we will see a further increase in their use.

  2. Used-line says:

    Hi,
    Thanks a lot for sharing this great write up with the readers like me. Electricity, water,gas, wind and all the energy kinds are really the big issues that every country faces. I believe that being a responsible citizen we need to use these resources of energy wisely instead of waste them.

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