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Africa's First Experimental Wind Test Sites |
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 In order to highlight the use of wind energy, an experimental wind test site has been installed in a desert farm on the trade wind Atlantic coast. In 1994, the farm's main productions, greenhouse-grown vegetables, tomatoes and melons were originally destined for off-season high value export markets. They are now supplying the region's growing local and regional markets.
The electricity needs of the farm were supplied by two diesel generators and a wind turbine was added to the system. The 50 kW Atlantic Orient wind turbine was connected into a small 5500 volts distribution grid. Two 50 kW diesel generators provided the backup power, and the surplus or off-peak wind power production supplied a variable speed driven ice making plant. The ice production has a high local market value due to the fishing activity in the region.  When installed and in operation over ten years ago, the 50 kW Atlantic Orient wind turbine was at that time among the very first of its category on the continent. It now looks obsolete, as the rated power of wind turbines have increased significantly since. For this hybrid Wind/Diesel system however, the capacity utilized in these wind regimes proved to be more than enough.
Indeed, wind power penetration rates achieved when the system was up and running was close to 70% and the control system, which had never been tested outside experimental conditions required several upgrades and modifications.
The main difficulty there lied in the stability of the system and a lot of electronics controlling modular resistive dump loads had to be progressively added in the overall control system.
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Test Site 
