Civil Engineering August 2022 | Vol 30 No 7

Civil Engineering August 2022 43 E nel Green Power South Africa (EGP RSA) has connected the 147 MW Karusa Wind Farm to the elec- tricity grid. It is located in a remote part of the Laingsburg Local Municipality in the Western Cape, and will be able to generate more than 500 GWh annually, potentially averting the emission of approximately 500 000 tons of CO 2 into the atmosphere annually. Karusa features the Vestas V136-4.2 MW wind turbines, the largest on the African continent to date. Awarded to Enel Green Power in 2016 as part of round four of South Africa’s Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP), the wind farm is supported by a 20-year power purchase agreement with Eskom. Manuele Battisti, Country Manager of EGP RSA, says construction of the Karusa facility commenced in 2019 and amounts to a €200 million investment in South Africa. “The Covid-19 hard lockdown and accompanying restrictions caused various delays and supply challenges for the project as well as limiting international travel. Enel Green Power overcame these strategic problems by using South African resources and harnessing technological solutions that allowed for remote interac- tion with colleagues in other countries,” he adds. EGP RSA employs local staff and hires local contractors in the construction process, with the aim of promoting mean- ingful socio-economic and enterprise development. As part of its Creating Shared Value initiative, EGP RSA has as- sisted underserved communities in close proximity to the wind farm. One initiative involved the supply of 15 interactive smartboards and 15 laptops to the Acacia Primary School in Laingsburg as part of an educational support programme. EGP RSA is currently looking to empower local SMMEs through its Enterprise Development Support pro- gramme. This could include support in the form of funding, income generating assets (equipment), skills development and market linkages, among others. Battisti says while the employees at Karusa worked under extraordinary circumstances, they concluded their work with zero lost-time incidents. “Completing the project despite challenging circum- stances is testimony to their hard work and resilience,” he concludes.  Karusa Wind Farm connects to national grid The Karusa wind farm can generate more than 500 GWh annually funded by the South African government and the World Bank. The pilot project aims to store 10 000 tons of CO 2 . The site is located in the Leandra region of Mpumalanga, close to the Sasol Secunda plants, and consists of a basalt geological structure that needs to be investigated as a suitable CO 2 storage environment. Sasol plans to produce safe aviation fuels (SAF) at its Secunda petrochemical plant using the FT process and green H 2 . Production of petrol and diesel could ultimately be replaced by SAF. They also have the option to replace carbon fuel production with sustainable chemical production. The plan is to supply the OR Tambo airport with SAF and thereafter supply the export market. The CSIR has done extensive modelling around various sce- narios of electricity supply and demand and for a variety of energy mixes based on IRP2019. In all scenarios, coal power with CCS is more costly than other alternatives such as renewable power. Coal plants with high efficiency low emissions technology, such as ultra-supercritical plants, do perform at higher energy efficiencies (40% plus), however the additional capital and operational costs of carbon capture and storage make them less competitive than renewable power. The cost of solar PV and wind has decreased significantly over the past 10 years with average tariffs decreasing some 80% to 90%. This trend is expected to continue as capacity at scale is developed. The CSIR has found that there is a role for natural gas in peaking load service (open cycle gas turbines) to cover the variability of renewable power. They don’t recommend building baseload gas power (com- bined cycle gas turbines) because it risks lock-in of gas technology. However, the footprint required by renewable power installa- tions is relatively large. Studies have shown that South Africa is richly endowed with large expanses of land where solar and wind resources are abundant. Availability of land is not considered a constraint, though compliance with regulations to utilise this land must be followed. The development of technologies and industries that will reduce GHG emissions is a key focus area worldwide. Additional policies and regulations support the development environment and commercialisation of new technologies and to develop industries. This can be achieved through a variety of means, including tax incentives, carbon taxes, grants, subsidies, investing incentives and equity funding.