Construction has officially begun on the 140MW Ishwati Emoyeni Wind Farm in South Africa, after developers African Clean Energy Developments (ACED) and Energy Infrastructure Management Services (EIMS Africa) reached financial close on the project.
The wind farm is being developed by ACED, which is leading and co-sponsoring the initiative, with additional investment from the African Infrastructure Investment Managers' IDEAS Fund and Reatile. The IDEAS Fund is one of South Africa's largest domestic infrastructure equity funds.
The Ishwati Emoyeni project is notable for being the first sizeable renewable energy initiative in South Africa to sign a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with renewable energy aggregator, NOA Group Trading. NOA secured its trading licence from the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) on January 31, enabling it to purchase the renewable energy produced by the wind farm.
Expected to begin operations in 2026, the project will feature 32 Vestas 4.5MW wind turbines. It is located next to two other wind farms within the same consortium, the Umsinde Emoyeni and Khangela Emoyeni wind farms.
Karel Cornelissen, Chief Executive of NOA Group, commented, “This marks the first large-scale renewable project in South Africa to reach financial close with an energy trader as the offtaker.”
James Cumming, CEO of ACED, added, “We're delighted to have closed and commenced construction on this complex and pioneering project – the first trader offtake project at scale. It's the long-term PPAs we sign, such as that with NOA here, that bring these projects to life.”
ACED will oversee the construction management services for the project, while EIMS Africa will provide operations-phase management services once the farm is completed.
The project is part of ACED and EIMS Africa's broader efforts in renewable energy, having brought over 600MW of hydro, wind, and solar projects to financial close and construction in the past two years.
