Proposed Sonvley Wind Energy Facility (WEF) and associated infrastructure near Kleinsee in the Northern Cape Province

FE Sonvley (Pty) Ltd proposes the development of the Sonvley Wind Energy Facility (WEF) with a generation capacity of up to 360 MW. The proposed Sonvley WEF is located approximately 25 km southeast of the town of Kleinsee in the Nama Khoi Local Municipality and Namakwa District Municipality.
An area of up to 5 061 ha has been identified for assessment for the placement of the Sonvley WEF development footprint. The proposed Sonvley WEF will include the following infrastructure:

» Up to 45 wind turbines (including turbine hardstand areas);
» Inverters and transformers;
» Operation and Maintenance buildings including a gate house and security building, control centre, offices, warehouses and workshops for storage and maintenance;
» Construction camps;
» Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS);
» Temporary and permanent laydown areas;
» Batching plants;
» Roads (internal and access);
» Facility grid connection infrastructure, including:
o Cabling and/or power lines between the project components and the facility substations;
o On-site facility substations and Eskom switching stations (up to 132 kV).

The Sonvley WEF will be located on Portion 4 of the Farm Kap Vley 315; Portions 2, 3 and 4 of the Farm Zonnekwa 328 and Portions 1 of the Farm Zonnekwa 326. Access roads are proposed on Portion 5 of the Farm Kamaggas 200 and Remaining Extent of Farm Kourootjie 316.

The project further requires connection to the grid in order to evacuate energy generated from the WEF into the national grid. Electrical Grid Infrastructure (EGI), including power lines, cabling and substations, is also being proposed within an assessment corridor with a length 28 km and width of up to 600 m.

The EGI corridor will be located on Portion 1 and the Remaining extent of Farm Zonnekwa 326; Portions 2 and 3 of the Farm Zonnekwa 328; Portion 2 of the Farm Pienaars Bult 317; Remaining extent of the Farm Honde Vlei 325; Remaining extent of the Farm Kannabieduin 324; Remaining extent of the Farm Sand Kop 322; Remaining extent of the Farm Mannels Vley 321; Portions 4 and 15, and the Remaining extent of the Farm Dikgat 195.

The proposed project falls within the Springbok Renewable Energy Development Zone (REDZ) and Northern corridor of the central strategic transmission corridor.

Province(s): Northern Cape