Johannesburg - The price of energy storage batteries would probably fall by as much as 70 percent by 2030, PwC power and utility specialist Angeli Hoekstra said yesterday.
Speaking at a briefing in Johannesburg, Hoekstra said the drop would be as a result of more people “taking up the systems”. She referred to South Africa’s Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme, which has seen wind and solar prices decrease steadily since its launch in 2011.
Hoekstra said the energy storage batteries would be the game changers as South Africa had over 2 000 megawatts of renewable energy connected to the national grid.
She said falling solar technology costs had also spurred the growth of stand-alone home systems. “Battery storage technology is fast evolving to the point where it is going to play a significant role in utility-scale solar power storage and is beginning to feature in smaller-scale off-grid solutions,” Hoekstra said.
Battery storage is a system that allows renewable energy producers to store energy in batteries when supply is plentiful and release it when needed.
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The intermittency of renewable energy and its unavailability when Eskom needed additional capacity during peak periods was the gist of Eskom chief executive Brian Molefe’s recent criticism of renewable energy technologies.
According to authorised Tesla Energy reseller Rubicon, energy storage units sold for at least R116 000 excluding VAT.
In a report on access to electricity, PwC said technological advances and the falling prices of technologies would transform the electricity sector.
The company said the trend would entail greater use of renewable energy and smaller grids. “For millions of people who do not currently have access to electricity, the old assumption that they will have to wait for grid extensions is being turned on its head by new technological possibilities,” PwC Africa power and utility deals lead John Gibbs said.
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Rural electrification
PwC said rural electrification was best tackled through a combination of local smaller grids and off-grid distributed generation instead of large-scale centralised generation.
“Mini grid and stand-alone solutions have achieved different market success and penetration so far,” PwC said.
By 2012, there were 200 mini grids in Mali and 30 in Senegal. Mini grids are grids that are not connected to the country’s national electricity grid.
PwC said grid extension connections, however, took longer, hence the convenience of stand-alone home systems.
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“Stand-alone home systems and mini grids have the potential to fill the gaps in grid infrastructure smarter and faster. For those who are beyond the reach of the grid, these off-grid systems need to be recognised as the primary means of access to electricity,” PwC said.
Hoekstra said the penetration of the mini grids was low in South Africa because the government and Eskom had a national electrification programme. She said between 2016/17 and 2018/19, Eskom, the Department of Energy and various municipalities would spend R17.6 billion to electrify 840 000 households.
But there were off grid electricity solutions in the country.
According to the report, the Mbhashe municipality in the Eastern Cape had commissioned the installation of off-grid solar home systems in 1 700 rural households. “Grid extension is not scheduled to reach these homes for at least three to five years,” PwC said.
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