Oil power plant in Western Cape, South Africa. Approximate location -34.1653, 21.9608.
OilWestern CapeSouth AfricaOCGTCO₂ modelled
Gourikwa is a 740 MW oil power station in Western Cape, South Africa. It is operated by Eskom. Based on its capacity (estimated), it can supply roughly 556k homes (estimated). It ranks #32 of 152 South Africa power plants by installed capacity. Commissioned in 2007, it is around 19 years old — relatively modern. Its modelled annual emissions are 327,790 t CO₂/yr (Climate TRACE), equivalent to about 76k cars driven for a year. In context, oil supplies about 0.8% of South Africa's electricity; the national grid averages 699 gCO₂/kWh (17.8% low-carbon) (2025).
Plant data: WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0), id WRI1000122.
Known, modelled and calculated values are kept separate. Missing fields are shown as unavailable.
The capacity and/or fuel fields on this page include a source-backed provenance label from GEM, an official registry, Wikidata, OSM, or a cross-source match.
capacity: GEM tracker 2026 (location L100000407108); fuel: WRI source-record fuel
Technically it is described as OCGT. Oil-fired plants burn heavy fuel oil or diesel, usually as peaking or backup capacity on islands and grids without gas pipelines; high fuel cost keeps their utilisation low.
Capacity comparison computed from the WRI Global Power Plant Database; fuel-type context is general engineering background.
This facility's annual emissions are roughly equivalent to:
Equivalencies via US EPA Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies; modelled emissions from Climate TRACE.
Installed capacity (MW), WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0).
Operated by Eskom. All plants by this company →
This oil plant burns oil or diesel to drive turbines or reciprocating engines. It sits in a cold semi-arid steppe climate (Köppen BSk) — Southern Hemisphere, latitude 34.2°S — which shapes how much energy it can produce and how its output varies through the year.
Monthly mean temperature
Heating degree-days here run 80% below the median power plant in this dataset — a proxy for how much extra energy heated equipment must replace through its surfaces in winter.
Climate heat-demand index: 20/100 — this site sits in the bottom third of the power plants we cover by heating degree-days.
Climate normals: WorldClim 2.1 (1970–2000 monthly normals, 10 arc-min, CC BY 4.0); zone: Köppen-Geiger world climate classification (Kottek et al. 2006, 0.5° grid). Degree-days & heat-demand index computed by PowerAtlas — a modelled heat-demand proxy, not a measured site figure.
For a plant’s outdoor hardware — heat-recovery steam generators (HRSG), expansion joints, valves, flanges and their insulation — the local climate sets how fast unprotected steel and coatings degrade. This site sits in a corrosive environment (estimated ISO 9223 class C4 — High), with dust abrasion the leading environmental stress.
Higher environmental severity is exactly where protective removable insulation pays back most: a sheltered micro-climate slows corrosion, UV and thermal-cycling damage and extends outdoor hardware service life. This is an indicative site-climate context — not a condition assessment of any specific plant or operator.
Indicative estimate via the ISO 9223:2012 informative method (atmospheric corrosivity from temperature, time-of-wetness and airborne salinity), using WorldClim climate normals, the Köppen-Geiger class and coast distance. Indicative, not a measured corrosion rate.
The #2 largest oil power plant of 3 in South Africa by capacity.
South Africa has 3 oil power plants in this dataset, together about 2,413 MW of capacity.
Coordinates -34.1653, 21.9608 from WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0). View on OpenStreetMap.
Gourikwa is a 740 MW source-record oil power plant in Western Cape, South Africa, commissioned in 2007.
Its output is enough to supply roughly 555,634 homes (estimated).
Gourikwa is operated by Eskom.
Gourikwa has modelled emissions of about 327,790 tonnes of CO₂ per year (Climate TRACE).
