Origenal article from IOL (26/04/06)-Sapa
The City of Cape Town's mayoral committee has given a thumbs up to the proposed Darling Wind Farm. The City said in a news release that the committee had recommended to the council that the City enter into a power purchase agreement with Darling Wind Farm (Pty) Ltd. The Darling Wind Farm is a R70-million national pilot project funded jointly by the Danish Development Aid (Danida), the Department of Minerals and Energy and the Darling Independent Power Producing Co.
The project will open up opportunities for further wind energy projects and other "green energy projects" both in the Western Cape and further afield.It will also be an important step in assisting the city to reach its target of sourcing 10 percent of its overall energy requirements from sustainable sources by 2020.
Once council had considered the committee's recommendation, the way will be open for City customers to purchase green energy.
This will be marketed to "willing buyers" at an initial premium of 25c per kWh.
It is expected that the demand for green energy will outstrip the 13 200 Gigawatt hours of energy that can be supplied annually by the farm Gigawatt hour 3D 1 million kilowatt hours.
Darling Wind Farm is expected to commence generation in 2007 and the energy will be sold through RED1, the City's electricity service provider.