Mainstream awarded wind projects in South Africa

A consortium headed by Irish-founded energy firm Mainstream Renewable Power has been awarded three significant wind energy projects in South Africa, which will see a combined €660m invested in the country.

Yesterday, South Africa’s department of energy conferred on the consortium preferred bidder status for three large-scale wind energy projects planned for the country’s Northern Cape region, with a total generation capacity of 360 megawatts.

Mainstream will be joined by several local energy and investment specialists on the projects and will now rank as the leading developer of renewable energy in South Africa.

“We have three wind and solar projects due to be operational in the coming months and now a further three large-scale wind farms due to start construction next year,” said Mainstream CEO and founder, Eddie O’Connor.

“More than five years ago, Mainstream identified the future potential of the South African market and we are delighted that the quality of our projects and the experience of our team has been recognised.”

The latest awards form part of the third round of the South African Government’s Renewable Energy Procurement Programme.

Two years ago, another consortium headed by Mainstream was awarded 238 megawatts of wind and solar power projects as part of the first round of the programme. All projects, from that round, are on track to be fully operational by the middle of next year.

Regarding the bidding process, Mr O’Connor said: “I understand the quality was very high; there were 93 bids submitted, only 17 were successful today and we won three of those.”

The news marks the latest in a series of significant announcements concerning Mainstream of late — with the firm having, earlier this month, completed the €100m sale of a 25% stake in the company to Japanese trading giant, Marubeni; and also having signed a deal in Chile to build 600 megawatts of wind and solar projects by 2016.