New concerns raised over impact of transmission line connecting the project to the grid.
proposed for the West Coast Peninsula was due to have landed on the desk of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries minister Barbara Creecy this week.
Despite arguably constituting a single project, two separate environmental authorisations for Boulders have been issued by the DEFF. The first, in January, was for the wind farm site , while a second authorisation was issued in June for an associated 132 kilovolt substation and transmission line. In its first appeal against approval for the rival wind farm, Vredenburg Wind Farm argued that because the Boulders project’s huge turbines would be situated immediately upwind of its own slightly smaller turbines, its access to the wind resource would be reduced because of the physical phenomenon of “wake effect”. This would cause “significant” revenue losses, estimated at millions, possibly even hundreds of millions of rands over the 20-year contract with Eskom, it claimed.
This will potentially impact West Coast One’s operations that should have been assessed in terms of statutory environmental impact assessment regulations but haven’t been, it argues. Also, the separate assessment of the Boulders facility and of its grid connection impacts has resulted in a “defective” assessment process.
Vredenburg Wind Farm also raises in its appeal the fact that the electromagnetic impact of the Boulders transmission line on West Coast One’s existing transmission line has not been investigated, evaluated or assessed, and that this new line may cause a loss of energy and have a financial impact on West Coast One. There is also a potential dust problem that can cause flashovers – electricity arcs resulting in short circuits.
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