Melanie Gosling
Environment Writer
ENERGY minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson will expand the country’s renewable energy sector by adding another 6 300MW of wind and solar power to the government programme that buys green power from the private sector.
This is in addition to the 5 243MW of renewables that have already been bought by the energy department’s independent power producers’ programme.
The government’s bidding and buying programme for renewable energy will also be shortened and simplified – a process which has been characterised by costly delays borne by the private sector.
The move has been welcomed by the renewable energy industry, which has said the expansion and acceleration of the programme will help the industry regain momentum while addressing the energy shortage.
The measures announced yesterday were designed to increase the amount of electricity supplied to the national grid by the private sector, and apart from renewable energy included gas, coal and cogeneration.
“Resolving the energy challenge remains a critical element to the cabinet,” Joemat-Pettersson said.
With 1MW equal to 1 000kW, prices for wind power are around 62c a kilowatt hour – about 40 percent less than the projected cost of electricity from the 4 800MW coal-fired Medupi plant still under construction.
Joemat-Pettersson also announced the companies that had won bids in the fourth round of the renewable energy programme. The wind farms are Roggeveld (140MW), Karusa (140MW), Nxuba Wind Farm (139MW), Golden Valley Wind (117MW) and Oyster Bay (140MW).
The solar PV are Sirius Project One (75MW), Droogfontein 2 (75MW), Dyason’s Klip 1 (75MW), Dyason’s Klip 2 (75MW), Konkoonsies II (75MW) and Aggeneys (40MW). Also approved were a biomass project, Ngodwana Energy (25MW), and a small hydro plant Kruisvallie (5MW).
These projects are expected to be commissioned by November next year.
Chief executive of the SA Wind Energy Association Johan van den Berg said the industry was “thrilled” with the ministerial determination for another 6 300MW of renewables.
“We project that up to 3 000MW of this may be wind power. This creates a three- to five-year visibility for our sector, and this is just what is required to bed down all the early successes and continue the strong growth.
“If we look past the short-term rumblings and crises, we’re seeing not just a tremendously strong renewable energy industry emerging – about R170 billion after round four – but we’re seeing an emergent collaboration between government and private sector to meet the most pressing challenges facing the country. This is the signal that is far more important than the short-term noise,” Van den Berg said.
Once the intention to buy another 6 300MW was gazetted, it would provide a signal to international investors to put money into local factories and so push the local content of wind farms to about 54 percent, he said.
In 2012, South Africa had just eight wind towers. It now had 300, and another 500 are under construction. The SA Photovoltaic Industry Association said the expanded programme would help the industry regain momentum, adding that the renewable energy industry had proved it could deliver electricity on time and on budget.
Solar PV alone could deliver at least another 2 000MW a year for the next five years.