Enel Green Power Signs Financing For 5 South African Wind Farms Worth 700 Megawatts

Enel Green Power’s South African subsidiary has recently signed project financing worth €950 million ($1,099 million) for five new wind farms which would total approximately 700 megawatts (MW).

Enel Green Power RSA — Enel Group’s South African renewable energy company — announced last week that it had signed project financing agreements with senior lenders Nedbank Limited and Absa for up to €950 million, approximately 80% of the overall investment necessary to build five wind farms each worth around 140 MW. Enel Group will contribute around €230 million in equity for the construction, helping the project reach financial close and allowing construction of the first of the wind farms to begin by the end of the year.

“We have reached an important milestone in South Africa by achieving financial close on five major wind projects which confirm our continuing commitment to the country’s renewables sector, within a context of sustainable development,” said Antonio Cammisecra, Head of Enel’s Global Renewable Energies Division Enel Green Power. “Enel Green Power will be supporting these processes by generating its emission-free energy in partnership with local shareholders and in cooperation with the local communities, according to our long-term vision of shared value creation.”

The five wind farms will each have about 140 MW of capacity, and are named Nxuba, Oyster Bay, Garob, Karusa, and Soetwater. The Garob, Karusa and Soetwater projects are set to be constructed in the Northern Cape province, while the Oyster Bay and the Nxuba wind farms will be built in the Eastern Cape province. Each of the wind farms were awarded contracts in the fourth round of South Africa’s Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP) and each is minority-owned by a local partner.

The Nxuba wind farm is expected to be operational by the second half of 2020 and all five will be operational by the end of 2021, bringing Enel Green Power’s total installed capacity in South Africa up to over 1.2 gigawatts (GW).