South Africa’s first large-scale high-resolution Wind Resource map
The Department of Energy (DoE) released to the public South Africa’s first large-scale high-resolution Wind Resource map – generated from the Wind Atlas for South Africa (Wasa) project launched last year – for research, development and planning of wind farms.
The Wind Resource map currently covered the Western Cape and parts of the Eastern Cape and Northern Cape provinces ; however, following the completion of the second phase of the Wasa project during the current financial year, it would also encompass KwaZulu-Natal, the remaining parts of the Eastern Cape and parts of the Free State .
The main objective of the project is to develop and employ numerical wind atlas methods and develop capacity to enable large scale of exploitation of wind energy in South Africa. This includes dedicated wind resource assessment and sitting tools for planning purposes i.e. a Numerical Wind Atlas and database for South Africa that can be used for feasibility studies in support of projects. The atlas will be freely available to all interested parties on the completion of the project.