While Ireland is battling against floods, here in Noupoort, in the Northern Cape of South Africa, we are keeping fingers crossed for even a sprinkling of rain.

The Karoo in the Northern Cape, well known as an arid barren landscape, is currently experiencing its worst drought in 30 years. Farmers are down to the last water in their boreholes and summer/Christmas holidays have been cancelled as they stay at home and hope for rain. Cows and sheep are wandering aimlessly in search of water, and have caused many road accidents.

Throughout this year, rolling electricity blackouts have become the norm in South Africa as supply regularly fails to meet demand. Not having electricity is inconvenient, but you can adapt and prepare for it as soon as the daily load shedding schedule has been emailed.

But adapting to lack of water is much more challenging. At the moment, the supply is cut off for a few hours every day. It’s especially worrying to think about the drought’s impact on next year’s food supply.

There is a strong wind blowing through the Karoo which brings us hope. This wind also brought me to Noupoort in 2012, to work as a project manager with Mainstream Renewable Power on the construction of a wind farm. This farm will help with the electricity shortage and, very importantly, won’t draw on precious water supplies.

The wind industry is relatively new in South Africa, and experts from all over the world are working with locals to erect 35 wind turbines which will power the equivalent of 69,000 homes. Half of the 450 people employed on our farm are from Noupoort, which has an unemployment rate of 80 per cent. It used to be a bustling railway hub, but is now best known for its major drug and alcohol rehabilitation facility.

Our wind farm will exploit the free wind and the Karoo’s wide open spaces, where some agricultural farms are bigger than Irish counties.

While driving around the wind farm, seeing the striking image of turbines being erected among the flat top hills and sheer rock escarpments, it strikes me how green energy makes perfect sense. I just hope our leaders in Paris see the same sense, so we can continue to benefit from the wind.