The 147 MW Karusa wind farm is now connected to the national grid and is geared up to produce more than 500 GWh of renewal energy annually. The power is generated via Vestas V136-4.2MW turbines, the largest on the African continent to date.

The wind farmstraddles the Northern Cape and Western Cape provincial boundaries and forms part of Bid Window Four of South Africa’s Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme. The project was awarded to Enel Green Power RSA (EGP RSA) in 2016 and is supported by a 20-year Power Purchase Agreement with Eskom.   

Including Karusa, EGP RSA now has six wind farms up and running in South Africa, namely Nojoli (88 MW), Oyster Bay (148 MW), Nxuba (148 MW), Gibson Bay (111 MW) and Garob (145 MW). EGP RSA’s Soetwater (147 MW) wind farm is expected to achieve commercial operation during July 2022.  

Collectively, the company has 10 operational wind and solar projects in South Africa. Once all current projects are in operation, the business will have an overall installed capacity of 1.2 GW. 

Manuele Battisti, country manager for EGP RSA, says construction of the Karusa facility commenced in 2019 and amounts to a €200 million investment in South Africa.