Renewable-energy project developer Umoya Energy has appointed Mott MacDonald as the owner’s engineer for its 67 MW Hopefield wind farm project, to be built in the Western Cape.

The project is among the 28 projects to advance following the first bid window under South Africa’s Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer’s Programme (REIPPP).

On November 5, the Department of Energy and Eskom signed the power purchase, implementation and direct agreements for these first projects, which collectively represented an investment value of around R47-billion and wind and solar capacity of around 1 415 MW.

The financial closure deadline for the second group of 19 projects, representing 1 043.9 MW of capacity and an investment value of around R28-billion, is scheduled for March 2013.

In December, the department postponed the third bid window submission deadline from May 7 to August 19, to incorporate lessons from the first two bid windows, as well as to align the next round to the Ministerial determinations published on December 19.

The new approach would be presented in the form of a new request for proposals, which should be published in February.

Hopefield, meanwhile, will comprise of 37, 1.8 MW Vestas turbines and it is located within the Saldanha Bay municipality on 2 200 ha of farmland. It is expected to produce more than 190 GWh of electricity yearly.

The developer, Umoya Energy, is a project company made up of the African Infrastructure Investment Fund Trust, the Kagiso Infrastructure Empowerment Fund Trust, the Infrastructural, Developmental and Environmental Assets Managed Fund, Tomlo Commodities and the Hopefield Wind Farm Local Community Company.

CEO Richard Gordon says he looks forward to an ongoing relationship with Mott MacDonald, which has global power resources comprising over 1 900 engineers, including more than 150 renewables engineers.

Manager of Mott MacDonald’s power business in South Africa Jason Rowan says the company is excited to be part of South Africa’s “burgeoning” renewables industry.

Initially, the South African government planned to procure 3 725 MW of renewable capacity by 2016, but following the recent determination an additional 3 200 MW has been allocated to the REIPPP and the schedule extended to 2020.