The severe power shortages facing Cape Town – coupled with the apparent reluctance to extend nuclear power in the city – has resulted in Eskom earmarking 17 sites for the erection of plants to generate electricity using wind and wave energy.
The sites are beyond Still Bay where a pumped storage scheme is located, similar to the Palmiet power station near Grabouw. It will see 17 salt-water dams of about 100 hectares each being built near the coast. The dams will hold between 10- and 30-million cubic metres of water.
According to Eskom some of the dams will be as large as the Upper Steenbras Dam, which holds 31-million cubic metres of water. Cape Town does not have enough fresh water resources to power additional pumped storage schemes or provide additional generating plants using fresh water for cooling purposes.
In terms of Eskom’s scheme, seawater will be pumped using wind and wave energy, to a dam in the mountains where it will be stored. When electricity demand reaches a peak in the Western Cape, the seawater will be released to flow through a waterway and will drive turbines that will be used to generate additional electricity.
Each of the dams will have an underground pipeline with a diameter of between five and seven metres that will span distances of between one and six kilometres.
Roads, a transmission line, a seawater outfall and wind pumps will cover about 200 hectares at each dam. Eskom is due to conduct a full environmental impact assessment before going ahead with plans aimed at augmenting the Western Cape’s potentially serious power shortages.
Concerns have been expressed that the huge salt-water dams could contaminate Cape Town’s scarce fresh water resources. Four of the proposed sites are in the Table Mountain National Park and others are in the Kogelberg Nature Reserve, De Hoop Nature Reserve, Maanskynskop Nature Reserve and the Agulhas National Park.
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My immediate reaction to this article is that is an April Fool's joke! If not, it is the craziest scheme to date. All the sites mentioned have important river systems flowing through them over porous sandstone.They are also environmentally speaking extremely sensitive sites, particularly the Kogelberg Biosphere Reserve. Eskom should stop suggesting hairbrained schemes and wasting their time and the taxpayer's money. We are not a seismologically unstable area and the negative reaction to nuclear power is presently based on the recent tragic Japanese experience. There are nuclear reactors available small enough to power a village or small town which will remove the necessity for these gigantic projects. - A Mason
While they are about it they can start aquaculture of marine species in the dams and take the pressure off our marine resources. - Arthur