Castle wind farm in South Africa enters construction phase

The Castle wind farm project in South Africa is set for construction. This follows a financial close that was reached by Rand Merchant Bank, a subsidiary of FirstRand Bank in South Africa.

The wind farm, located near the town of De Aar in the Northern Cape Province, will have a capacity of 89 MW. African Infrastructure Investment Managers (AIIM) through its renewable energy project development platform African Clean Energy Developments (ACED), is leading the project in partnership with Reatile Renewables, a specialist renewable energy investment company.

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Castle wind farm project

The facility will consist of 16 Goldwind turbines, each with a capacity of 6 MW. It will be connected to the national grid through the Hydra main transmission station owned by Eskom, the state-owned electricity utility. The electricity generated by the wind farm will be used to power the mining operations of Sibanye-Stillwater, a Johannesburg-based company specializing in gold mining and processing.

Sibanye-Stillwater has already signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) with the Castle Wind Farm project company. Neal Froneman, Sibanye-Stillwater’s Chief Executive Officer, expressed the significance of the project in their journey towards carbon neutrality by 2040. The wind farm will contribute to reducing carbon emissions, mitigating climate change, and providing electricity savings and energy security for Sibanye-Stillwater’s operations in South Africa.