SOUTH AFRICA: For the first time in the history of the World Cup, one of the venues hosting the tournament, which kicks off on Friday in South Africa, will be powered by wind energy.

The output of a recently installed Vestas 1.8MW turbine is being offered free-of-charge to the Nelson Mandela Bay stadium in Port Elizabeth, in Eastern Cape province, for the duration of the event.

The turbine belongs to Electrawinds, a Belgian renewable energy company whose operating assets up to now have all been in Europe. Managing director Luc Desender says "it is my personal dream to reserve the first green electricity of Electrawinds in South Africa for the 2010 football world championship."

His turbine is located in the Coega port development, where it will be joined by another 24 Vestas machines, due for  commissioning next year.

While South Africa introduced a generous feed-in tariff of ZAR1.25/kWh (EUR0.134/kWh) for wind power last year (Windpower Monthly, May 2009), the system is not yet in place for independent power producers to sign power purchase agreements with state utility Eskom.

Instead, Electrawinds plans to sell the output to a third party. Up until now, South Africa had just 8.44MW turning at two demonstration projects.

windpowermonthly.com