The schemes are the company’s first in the country and were built by its subsidiary Iberdrola Ingenieria in a consortium with South Africa-based Group Five.
The 74MW Noblesfontein wind farm in Northern Cape was constructed under a €112m contract with a consortium led by Spain-based Gestamp Wind.
The facility features 41 Vestas V100 1.8MW turbines, a substation and the power line to upload the electricity to the grid.
Iberdrola built the 27MW Klipheuwel wind farm under a €40m deal with local firm Biotherm Energy.
Situated close to the town of Caledon in Western Cape, the Klipheuwel wind farm features nine Sinovel SL3000 3MW turbines.
Both wind farms were awarded under the first round of South Africa’s renewable energy support programme in 2011.
Iberdrola Ingenieria is also close to completing the 96MW Jasper photovoltaic power plant in Kimberley, which it claims will be the largest in Africa.
The tender procedure for the Jasper project was launched during the second round of the South African renewables programme, which expects to award contracts for a 3,725MW total capacity for various renewable energies in five different rounds.
The South African Government has recently unveiled plans to launch another renewables programme after the completion of existing one, to add a further 3,200MW of generation capacity to the grid by 2020.
Image: Wind turbine installation in Noblesfontein. Photo: Courtesy of Iberdrola, S.A.
