page_title: Renewable energy in South Africa
section_title: Wind energy
hierarchical_section_title: Renewable energy in South Africa / Types of energy / Wind energy
caption_attribution_description: English: Gariep Dam
context_page_description: Renewable energy in South Africa is energy generated in South Africa from renewable resources, those that naturally replenish themselves—such as sunlight, wind, tides, waves, rain, biomass, and geothermal heat. Renewable energy focuses on four core areas: electricity generation, air and water heating/cooling, transportation, and rural energy services. The energy sector in South Africa is an important component of global energy regimes due to the country's innovation and advances in renewable energy. South Africa's contribution to greenhouse gas emissions is ranked as moderate and its per capita emission rate is higher than the global average. Energy demand within the country is expected to rise steadily and double by 2025.
  Of all South African renewable energy sources, solar holds the most potential. Because of the country's geographic location, it receives large amounts of solar energy. Wind energy is also a major potential source of renewable energy. Due to the high wind velocity on the coast of the country, Cape Town has implemented multiple wind farms, which generate significant amounts of energy.
context_section_description: Wind power uses wind turbines to produce electric power. Wind levels vary depending on factors such as terrain, bodies of water and vegetative cover. Wind turbines convert the wind into kinetic energy and mechanical power. The wind turns 50-metre-long blades attached to 80 metre-high shafts that generate the electric energy. Wind turbine farms can range between 10MW to over 100 MW and produce energy when the wind is between 13–90 km/h. Wind turbines farms can be onshore or offshore. Offshore have stronger winds and less visual impact. In 2014 the first major wind farm became operational with approximately 10 either operational or in construction today. South Africa's extensive coastline and geographical terrain including lowlands and high veld escarpment, provide wind energy that can be extracted and generated into off-the-shelf technology. There are currently 19 wind energy developments in South Africa with more than 600 wind turbines. On the international scale, South Africa ranks as having fair to reasonable wind resources. Wind power is a renewable, widely distributed and clean form of energy. The production of wind energy does not produce greenhouse gases and is an alternative to burning fossil fuels.
caption: Gariep Dam, located in Eastern Cape, is a large-scale hydroelectric site with the primary purposes of power generation, irrigation, domestic and industrial use.
exif: {}