Finance and Economic Opportunities
Whether he can provide the (a) founding documents or relevant institutional information pertaining to the Gouda wind-farm project, with specific reference to community trust and membership agreements, (b) financial and annual reports since its establishment up to 2020 and (c) records of community engagements and feedback sessions with the communities of (i) Gouda and (ii) Saron?
The Gouda Wind farm[1] is a privately-owned[2] wind power project that was developed through the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Programme in its auction process known as bid window 2.
As the Gouda Wind farm is privately-owned, the Department of Economic Development and Tourism (DEDAT) does not have access to the information requested as these are not publicly available documents but are that of a private organisation.
DEDAT is aware that some of the documents requested may have been entered as part of the aforementioned bid process for the National government driven REIPPP process, however DEDAT has not been a party to these documents nor been involved in this procurement process. The procurement process is run at a national level by the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy’s Independent Power Producer office and not provincially in the Western Cape and as such DEDAT does not have any jurisdiction over this process nor access to these documents.
The honourable member would have to approach the Gouda Wind farm company directly[3] to obtain the information requested as these are not in the public domain.
[1] The first wind farm installed by ACCIONA in South Africa. Grid connected in 2015, it has forty-six 3-MW (unit capacity) turbines of ACCIONA Windpower technology mounted on concrete towers with a hub height of 100 meters. https://www.acciona-energia.com/areas-of-activity/wind-power/major-projects/gouda-wind-farm/
[2] The ownership structure is as follows: ACCIONA (54.9%); Royal bafokeng Holdings (25.1%); Soul City (10%); Gouda Wind Energy Community Trust (10%)
[3] See contact details at https://www.acciona-energia.com/contact/
