Mainstream's Noupoort wind plant effectively eliminates about 300 000 tonnes of carbon emissions each year when compared to traditional fossil fuel power plants
Mainstream Renewable Power has been leading South Africa’s transition to renewable energy since 2014, adding 848MW of clean, affordable generating capacity through the delivery of new wind and solar PV farms. In addition, it has a further 8GW of projects in development spread across multiple provinces around South Africa.
Mainstream was one of the first companies to take up the government’s call for renewable energy bidders in 2011 and has been at the forefront of developing clean energy in South Africa for over 10 years.
The company has a global footprint and at first, Mainstream South Africa relied on that international experience. Today, there are about 100 people employed by Mainstream locally, and all of them are South African.
The renewables landscape in South Africa is evolving and Mainstream is excited by the opportunities presented by the recent changes to the law allowing private companies to build their own power plants of up to 100MW, without a licence. The market is ready now to see a rapid expansion of industrial-scale private market energy sales from wind and solar plants and Mainstream is well-positioned to seize this opportunity.
With an expansive project portfolio in place, it is ready to partner with energy intensive users to significantly reduce their current cost of electricity and to provide clean and reliable electricity. It is by far the most cost competitive for electricity consumers, with inflation or less cost increases guaranteed for the duration of the supply contract. This gives big users of electricity cheaper than market electricity, with no risk of the above inflation increases we have seen the past decade.
In addition to our renewable plant development business, Mainstream SA through its sister company, Mainstream Asset Management SA (MAMSA), offers operation and maintenance service for the plant. It currently manages five wind farms contributing over 600MW of power to Eskom’s grid and oversees the regulatory and legal compliance issues including the sale of electricity to Eskom.
MAMSA’s work also involves working closely with our communities that host renewable energy projects and it is committed to continuous stakeholder and community engagement. It believes community engagement should happen with communities and not to them. This philosophy is central to MAMSA’s asset-based community development methodology, which the company has rolled out to all communities surrounding the wind farms it manages.
Titania Stefanus-Zincke, General Manager, Mainstream Asset Management South Africa (MAMSA)
MAMSA’s General Manager, Titania Stefanus-Zincke believes in working with government in uplifting communities, to maximise resources and align policies. “I do believe that there needs to be a more collaborative approach to development, that you should do it as a sector or with the government, and not as an individual company,” she said. “And, that collective impact is greater than a company-specific approach.”
For more information on how Mainstream can provide sustainable, clean and reliable electricity and for further information on how MAMSA can provide O&M management for your portfolio of existing renewable plant, email: [email protected].
Learn more about Mainstream Renewable Power at www.mainstreamrp.com.
Christine Rowan, an assistant nurse at the Noupoort Community Healthcare Centre, with an X-ray machine