GlobalData Pegs South Africa As New Wind Power Hotspot

Research and consulting firm GlobalData has labelled South Africa as the likely new hotspot for wind installation, with 3 GW expected to be installed over the next four years.

GlobalData released a new report last week identifying South Africa as “the new hotspot for wind installation” noting it “has great potential for capacity addition over the next four years.” Specifically, GlobalData expects South Africa to install an extra 3 GW by 2020, raising the country’s cumulative installed wind capacity up to 5.6 GW. An impressive achievement on its own, this takes extra meaning considering that South Africa’s installed wind capacity was only 10 MW in 2012 — installed over 10 years. Since then, there were 30 MW installed in 2013, 606 MW installed in 2014, and 483 MW installed in 2015.

“Despite the large capacity additions in 2014 and 2015, South Africa is still new to the wind industry, and it has huge wind power potential,” said Pavan Vyakaranam, GlobalData’s Analyst covering Power.

“At this point it is very important to have a system to determine wind speeds and other factors throughout the expanses of the country in order to plan installations, future capacity and infrastructure development in accordance with the wind potential in the different regions and sites.

“For example, in the same region there may be multiple wind sites and each site may have different wind speeds and potential due to different altitudes and terrains. A system that maps these sites and their wind potential would be highly instrumental for the government as well as for power producers in several aspects of planning, such as turbine size, fixing tariffs, and developing roads and transmission infrastructure.”

In addition to the inherent value of newly installed renewable energy capacity, GlobalData also believes that the country’s “newfound focus on wind power” will help drive the country closer towards its climate targets.

“The energy sector is currently the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in South Africa, emitting close to 250 million tons (MT) of carbon dioxide equivalent,” added Vyakaranam. “With more capacity additions underway, wind power will account for reductions to greenhouse gas emissions in South Africa by an estimated 6.4 MT in 2020 and then 12.7 MT in 2025.”