Emerging electricity retail brand Earth & Wire is aiming to achieve financial close on a R40-billion renewables and storage cluster in the Eastern Cape by the third quarter of 2027 and begin supplying green electricity to multiple customers by 2030.

Known as EnergyFields, the facility is planned for construction south of Somerset East in the Blue Crane Route municipality on the western side of the N10, and will blend 700 MW of wind and 800 MW of solar PV with a battery energy storage system (BESS) facility of between 400 MW and 500 MW in size with four hours of storage.

Head of strategic business development Thomas Garner tells Engineering News that all the major permits are in place for the cluster and that the focus currently is on final turbine choices, detailed layouts and micro-siting.

In parallel, Earth & Wire is also navigating the grid-connection process in line with the Interim Grid Capacity Allocation Rules.

“We received the cost estimate letter for the cluster in early January 2025 which indicates that electricity can be evacuated by the end of 2029,” Garner says.

Once in commercial operation, EnergyFields will be able to supply about 3.6 TWh yearly from its solar PV and wind generators and between 1.12 and 1.4 TWh yearly from the BESS.

“The BESS will play an important role in ensuring firm supply, even during times when the renewable resource is not available while also acting as additional load for the network,” Garner explains.

Earth & Wire is also planning to support grid expansion and strengthen the Eastern Cape region by adding a total of 2.35 GW of connection capacity against the 2 GW required for EnergyFields itself, thus allowing for additional connections.

While 20-year power purchase agreements (PPAs) will be available for those customers seeking long-term arrangements, shorter tenure PPAs of between three and 12 years will also be offered.

Earth & Wire intends to own and operate its generation and storage assets rather than act as a trader and anticipates that licensed traders will be part of its overall customer base.

“We are targeting a blend of large, medium and small businesses, and it is a blend of offtakers on the Eskom distribution network as well as certain municipal networks,” Garner explains.

Owing to the fact that wheeling is impacted by the location of the different offtakers on the grid, the company is still working on finalising domestic wheeling agreements.

“But we are also gearing up to play in the South African Wholesale Energy Market, as well as to deliver electricity to customers in the region utilising existing export licences and the Southern African Power Pool network.”

Through EnergyFields, Earth & Wire aims to prove that it can supply predictable firm electricity from a combination of solar, wind and BESS to meet the demand profiles of various customers, including small customers, at affordable and competitive tariffs.