Mainstream to build 500MW in South Africa with Genesis Eco-Energy

Mainstream Renewable Power today announced the signing of a joint venture deal with South African wind farm developer, Genesis Eco-Energy, to build an initial pipeline of over 500MW of wind energy in the Eastern, Northern and Western Capes by 2014.

The joint venture company plans to have two projects, with a combined capacity of 70MW, ready for construction early next year. The deal involves a €850 million capital expenditure over a five year period.

The 30MW Jeffrey’s Bay wind farm, near Port Elizabeth and a 40MW project at Colesberg are both at advanced development stages and are expected to be fully operational early in 2011.

Mainstream’s Chief Executive, Dr. Eddie O’Connor, said: “Wind energy is very much an untapped resource in South Africa and this is a huge opportunity for us. The country is facing serious power shortages due to the lack of generating capacity. This has placed a severe growth constraint on the South African economy which is heavily reliant on fossil fuels.

“Right now there is less than 10MW of wind energy in operation in South Africa, but with their excellent wind resource there’s the potential for many thousands. We are confident that the South African government will shortly implement appropriate policies to kick-start and support the wind energy market.”

He added: “We’re delighted to be working with the Genesis Team. They have an abundance of local knowledge which perfectly complements our global strengths in areas such as Finance, Engineering and Procurement. Once again, partnership has been fundamental to our entry into this emerging market. As with our recent deal announced last week in Canada, ‘thinking globally and delivering locally’ is key to our success.”

Genesis Eco-Energy’s Director of Operations, Davin Chown, commented:” This investment is a vote of confidence in both the Genesis team as well as the emerging renewable energy market in South Africa which holds significant potential for an investment and development partnership such as ours.

“We have found a very experienced and passionate partner with Mainstream Renewable Power and are looking forward to working together to accelerate the implementation of projects in South Africa. Our partnership will support the government’s drive to demonstrate tangible and meaningful progress toward the implementation of large scale renewable energy projects ahead of events such as the FIFA 2010 World Cup.

“It will also be an important boost to economic development, energy security, job creation and local industry development for the local and provincial economies in the target project areas. The projects will also significantly contribute to the country’s climate change mitigation strategy”.