Nuclear power plant in Western Cape, South Africa. Approximate location -33.6737, 18.4281.
NuclearWestern CapeSouth AfricaCP1pressurized water reactor
Koeberg is a 1,940 MW nuclear power station in Western Cape, South Africa. It is operated by Eskom. Based on its capacity (estimated), it can supply roughly 4.4 million homes (estimated). It ranks #20 of 152 South Africa power plants by installed capacity. Commissioned in 1984, it is around 42 years old — long-established. As a non-combustion source, it has no direct CO₂ emissions from generation. In context, nuclear supplies about 4.2% 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 WRI1000137.
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 L100000500139); fuel: WRI source-record fuel
Technically it is described as pressurized water reactor. Nuclear plants split uranium to raise steam with no direct CO₂; they run as steady baseload with very high capacity factors and the longest operating lifetimes of any thermal plant.
Capacity comparison computed from the WRI Global Power Plant Database; fuel-type context is general engineering background.
Operated by Eskom. All plants by this company →
This nuclear plant uses heat from nuclear fission to raise steam for a turbine-generator. It sits in a warm-summer Mediterranean climate (Köppen Csb) — Southern Hemisphere, latitude 33.7°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 71% 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: 23/100 — 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 marine corrosion 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.
South Africa has 1 nuclear power plant in this dataset, together about 1,940 MW of capacity.
Coordinates -33.6737, 18.4281 from WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0). View on OpenStreetMap.
Koeberg is a 1,940 MW source-record nuclear power plant in Western Cape, South Africa, commissioned in 1984.
Its output is enough to supply roughly 4,369,988 homes (estimated).
Koeberg is operated by Eskom.
