Assessing the feasibility for a South African Wind Energy Programme

UNDP and SA Departments of Minerals and Energy (DME) through GEF funding

Funded by the Global Environment Fund (GEF), the feasibility study for the South African Wind Energy Programme was implemented in three phases, each one being contingent on the outcome of the previous one.

The first phase was to identify the barriers to establishing a wind energy industry in South Africa and to make recommendations to overcome these.

This study investigated the role for green funding to provide some of the incremental costs of supplying electricity from renewable energy sources, such as wind, which is sold into voluntary – and later, mandatory markets – as Green Power or Green Electricity. The study complemented a series of parallel studies and activities, including a Financial Engineering study, which was synthesized and used to elaborate a project document for a SAWEP.

The outputs of the study were intended to inform the development of a UNDP/GEF Project Document for South African Wind Energy Programme at a scale of approximately 50 MW to be implemented over a period of 4 – 5 years between 2005 and 2010.

The primary goal of this study was to produce a feasibility report for the South African Wind Energy Programme with the overall aim to develop a green funding scheme for SAWEP within the context of the South African electricity sector and broader economy.