We write from Cape Town, so South Africa is the country we know best from the ground, and the one where the wind is hardest to ignore. Anyone who has walked the Sea Point promenade on a summer afternoon knows the south-easter. But a windy city is not the same thing as a good wind economy, and the country's clean-energy story depends as much on its grid and its history as on its weather. This page sets out the broad picture in plain English. For current figures, policies and procurement rules, check official sources such as the energy department, the national regulator and the system operator.
Three coasts, many wind regimes
South Africa has a long coastline facing two oceans, and the wind behaves differently along it. The Western Cape gets strong seasonal winds, including the summer south-easter we call the Cape Doctor. The Eastern Cape coast and its hinterland are often described as windy too, while the escarpment and inland ridges can speed up air passing over them. Good sites are usually where several of these effects line up, not simply where it feels breezy on the beach.
The dry interior and the sun
Head inland and the climate dries out. The Karoo and the Northern Cape have clear skies and strong sunshine for much of the year, which makes them natural candidates for solar farms. The catch is distance: these are thinly populated areas, far from the big cities and industrial centres, so getting the power to where it is used means long transmission lines.
A grid built around coal
The national grid grew up around large coal-fired power stations in the north-east of the country. That shapes everything else. Lines are strongest where the coal stations are, and weaker in the windy and sunny south and west. In several areas the question is no longer whether the resource is good but whether there is grid capacity to connect another project. Our page on power cuts and load management explains why a stretched grid matters for households.
Rooftops as well as wind farms
Power cuts have pushed many homes and businesses to install rooftop solar panels and batteries. That has turned millions of people into small energy producers and raised new questions about tariffs, feeding power back to the grid and safety standards. See batteries and energy storage and energy saving at home for the basics.
Questions worth asking
- Is there grid capacity where the new project will connect?
- How does the project share benefits with nearby communities?
- What happens to coal-mining towns as the energy mix changes?
- Who buys the power: the national utility, a municipality or a private customer?
Keep reading
Compare neighbouring notes on Namibia, Lesotho and Eswatini, read how to read a wind map, or go back to the Country Notes hub.