Heritage Cases

Red Cap Energy (Pty) Ltd (‘Red Cap’) is proposing to develop four Wind Farms and associated grid connections (together referred to as the Hoogland Project) in an area located between Loxton and Beaufort West in the Western Cape Province. Hoogland 1 and 2 are located to the north closer to Loxton and form the Northern Cluster of Wind Farms that will share a grid connection named the Hoogland Northern Grid Connection. Hoogland 3 and 4 are located closer to Beaufort West and comprise the Southern Cluster which will similarly share a separate grid connection, named the Southern Grid Connection This application is for the Hoogland Northern Wind Farm Cluster (Hoogland 1 Wind Farm and Hoogland 2 Wind Farm), which is subject to a Scoping and EIA process. Even though these are two separate applications they are being considered in the same EIA Report. The Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) has granted Red Cap permission to combine the two Wind Farms into one Environmental Authorisation Application processes under Regulation 11 (1) of GN R. 982. It is proposed that each wind farm will comprise of up to 60 turbines with a targeted nameplate generation capacity of a maximum of 420MW. The entire footprint for each respective wind farm falls within the Western Cape Province, however, some watercourse crossing upgrades on existing roads fall within the Northern Cape and are under the jurisdiction of SAHRA. A supplementary specialist report was compiled to assess the watercourse crossing upgrades required on Northern Cape roads as shared infrastructure for the Hoogland Northern Projects, the findings of which have been incorporated into and presented within the EIA report.