Were it not for the wind energy boom in the Eastern Cape, Aphiwe Sondlo, 38, might still have been living in Khayelitsha, Cape Town, working as an auto electrician for the bus operator Golden Arrow.

Instead, he is one of the first graduates of a training programme for wind turbine technicians pioneered by the Cookhouse Wind Farm after community members asked for more opportunities for skilled employment at the plant.

Born in Cookhouse, he moved to Cape Town as a teenager and completed his schooling there. Neither he nor his wife, who is also from Cookhouse, enjoyed city living and longed to return home.

Intrigued by wind turbines ever since they first made an appearance in his hometown, he applied for the seven-month course in 2021, seeing it as an opportunity to combine his experience in mechanical work and electricity.

‘People leave Cookhouse because of a scarcity of jobs. They go to places with more opportunities and investments, and end up boosting the economy elsewhere, and not here,’ he said.

‘In Cape Town people were asking me why I want to move back to Cookhouse, they say there’s nothing here, but the wind industry is bigger in the Eastern Cape. I am hoping to play a role motivating young ones away from things like drug abuse and show them that there are opportunities here to better yourself.’

Sondlo and his fellow technicians are responsible for maintaining the wind farm’s 66 Suzlon S88 wind turbines, towering 80m above the ground, with blades each measuring 43m, and each capable of generating up to 2.1MW.

The wind farm’s annual output of about 341,000MW/h depends on gears being greased and bolts being correctly torqued. Wind turbines only stand still when technicians are working on them, or when something needs to be fixed.

When the Cookhouse Wind Farm was commissioned in November 2014, it was the first wind farm to be connected to the national grid; now, half-way through its 20-year design lifespan, maintenance is becoming increasingly important.

Seipati Matli, the wind farm’s technical manager since December 2022, says maintenance runs on a strict six-monthly schedule to ensure optimal reliability and energy generation, along with high standards of health and safety for the personnel and plant.

She anticipates that the wind farm will be able to maintain its current output, or perhaps even improve upon it.

‘Production depends on the wind resource; the turbines are positioned on the site for maximum productivity, even though they don’t all turn at the same speed at any given moment.

‘The high wind season is from April to September or October; that’s when our production is at its highest. November to March is the low season.’

Matli, who studied electrical engineering at the Central University of Technology in Bloemfontein, became interested in renewable energy during her learnership at Conco Group Africa, an energy infrastructure service provider, during the building and commissioning of a substation for renewable energy.

Equally important in her role is stakeholder relationships; she frequently meets with the farmers on whose land the turbines are built, as well as with the stakeholder communities.

Community Centred

The wind farm has an unusually large community shareholding: a community trust representing local residents owns 25% of the company, alongside Old Mutual and a number of funds managed by African Infrastructure Investment Managers.

Its strong community focus has enabled the wind farm to create opportunities beyond renewable energy in the four surrounding towns of KwaNojoli (Somerset East), Cookhouse, Bedford and Adelaide.

It employs local small- and medium-sized enterprises for services such as security, cleaning and bird monitoring, as well as any construction work needed on site.

It pays for the employment of around 20 teachers and subsidises a mobile clinic in partnership with the Eastern Cape Department of Health that treats around 5,000 patients a quarter.

Its bursary fund has produced a medical doctor and accounting graduate, and it has been deeply involved in early childhood development (ECD), contributing to the training of 47 ECD practitioners and contributing to building, renovation, furniture and appliances as well as teaching aids and nutrition for 28 ECD centres.

Fezeka Mselana, principal of the Msobomvu Family Development Project, an ECD centre in Cookhouse, said renovations such as a new floor, a stove and refrigerator for the kitchen and new equipment have made the lives of her and her assistants easier.

When the mobile clinic was introduced in 2018 it visited 46 farms. It didn’t take long before its benefits became apparent to farmworkers as well as landowners; nowadays the clinic visits 77 farms.

The wind farm pays the salaries of the mobile clinic staff, a professional nurse, assistant nurse and community healthcare worker, as well as the necessary refresher training; the provincial health department provides the transport and medication.

‘This initiative has made an immense difference,’ says Lifa Baskiti, the wind farm’s community operations officer. ‘If a farmworker has to go to the clinic for treatment, they lose a full day’s work, and hence a full day’s income, and often the farmer would have to take them to town because transport is not so easy to come by.

‘Now the mobile clinic’s roster is communicated in advance to the farmers’ associations, so the farmers and the workers can plan accordingly.’

Baskiti, who also grew up in Cookhouse, says he hopes that the wind farm’s various SMME development programmes become a catalyst for sustainable business development.

‘We want to be the injection; not the life support.’

Recipe for success

The Cookhouse Wind Farm is one of over 35 green energy projects in which the IDEAS Fund, one of the funds managed by African Infrastructure Investment Managers (AIIM), has a financial stake.

Vuyo Ntoi, co-managing director of AIIM, says the government’s REIPPP scheme requires independent power producers to implement social and economic development initiatives within a 50km radius from where the projects are located.

‘It is seen as a licence to operate and also serves to increase the acceptability of the projects in the communities where they operate. Typically, when a project is well accepted and is seen as part of the community, the community protects it because they feel it is theirs.’

Ntoi foresees that the benefit of the wind farm will stretch beyond the 20-year contract period.

‘After 20 years you’ll have a wind farm that is still capable of producing electricity, subject to perhaps an update or the recommissioning of parts of the plant. There is an opportunity for benefit beyond the current contractual period.

‘It is an asset which the community will continue to own through the trust.’