South Africa - Eskom negotiating with suppliers for the Cape wind farm

State-owned Eskom was in negotiations with potential suppliers for its proposed wind farm, to be built near Koekenaap in the Vredendal area of the Western Cape, the utility's media desk said on Friday.

"It is expected that these negotiations will end at the end of October. Thereafter, evaluations will be done and a report will be submitted to the Board Tender Committee for approval," the media desk stated.

The proposed project would involve the development of a wind farm with an initial capacity of 100 MW, which was likely to be increased to 200 MW. The plant would enable the storage of renewable energy for use during the evening peak demand.

The planned completion date for the wind farm was March 30, 2010.

The wind farm would be South Africa's second commercial wind farm, following the launch of the first such wind farm near Darling, in the Western Cape, in May.

Eskom had already established two wind-farms, namely the 3,2-MW Klipheuwel wind farm and the 5,2-MW Darling wind farm.

For more information, please contact Trevor Sievert at ts@windfair.net