Wind energy to power football World Cup

25 turbines can power 1700 homes

The eyes of the world turn to South Africa next month when the Football World Cup kicks-off in Johannesburg on June 11. Not only will fans witness the greatest football exhibition on earth, but they will also witness the first football stadium* powered by clean energy from a new wind farm.

The new wind farm was officially launched by Energy Minister Dipuo Peters and will be a 25-turbine Coega farm project in the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality (NMBM) in the Eastern Cape.

Electrawinds to power stadium

The company responsible for distribution and installation of the 150 feet turbines are Belgian-based renewable energy company Electrawinds partnered with the Coega Development Corp.

"A key part of the plan is that World Cup matches played at the new stadium will be the first in history powered by renewable energy, as the first wind turbine will be up and running in time for the start of the event," said Electrawinds' business development director Jan Dewulf in September.

Electrawinds is erecting the turbines to power the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium free of charge, in part to "give [something] back to the city," according to Emil Unger, the South African representative of Belgium-based Electrawinds. With the whole world watching, it will also provide a very good basis to advertise.

Despite ironic delays in erecting the turbines due to high winds, the completion of the first wind turbine in Port Elizabeth is estimated to be May 30, and will produce green energy to the Nelson Mandela Bay stadium throughout the matches played there.

In total Electrawinds has invested 1.2 billion Rand in the project, and each of the 25 wind turbines would have a capacity of 1,8 MW, which translates into an annual yield of 5.7 million kilowatt hours, which was said to be enough energy to power about 1700 households.

Wind farm will also power 1700 homes

Completion was scheduled for 2011, and once completed the wind farm would supply the NMBM with about 45 MW of green energy.
The electricity generated by the wind farm would be fed into the national grid and would be distributed by NMBM to households within the area.

Overall, 133 indirect construction jobs, 55 construction jobs and 12 permanent jobs would be created during the building of the wind farm.
Desender said 50 jobs were created during the construction phase of the foundation.

* The city of Manchester stadium, that houses premiership team Manchester City proposed plans to erect 85 feet high turbines to power the stadium back in 2006. Unfortunately these plans were scraped after concerns that ice forming on the blades could become a health hazard as the turbines were situated near the stadium in built up areas.

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