Fact Sheet

• Renewable Cookhouse Wind Farm 1 (RF) Pty Ltd is owned by Old Mutual, various funds managed by African Infrastructure Investment Managers (AIIM) and the Local Community Trust.
• The wind farm comprises 66 Suzlon S88 (2.1MW) wind turbine generators (WTGs) and has an installed capacity of 138.6 MW.
• It is situated approximately 7km east of Cookhouse in the Blue Crane Route Municipality in the Eastern Cape, and spans 2 600 hectares of pastoral land.
• The wind farm owner leases the land. Only a small percentage of the land area is occupied by the wind farm, which enables farming activities (mainly sheep grazing) to continue within the wind farm area.
• Cookhouse Wind Farm received Environmental Authorisation in May 2010.
• Construction of the wind farm commenced in February 2013.
• The wind farm first supplied electricity to the grid in March 2014 and Commercial Operation Date was achieved on 19 November 2014.
• Suzlon Wind Energy South Africa was responsible for construction of the wind farm, and is currently responsible for operation & maintenance.
• The wind farm is connected to Eskom’s Poseidon Transmission substation approximately 1.5km from the site.
• It supplies approximately 341 000MWh/year of clean, renewable energy to the national grid, addressing the ongoing and increasing need for electricity in South Africa.
• The wind farm produces enough green electricity to supply approximately 94 000 low-income, or 43 000 medium-income South African homes, and in so doing avoids approximately 384 000 tonnes of carbon emissions each year when compared to traditional fossil fuel power plants.
• Cookhouse Wind Farm positively impacts the communities of Cookhouse, Somerset East, Bedford and Adelaide.