Cape Town - More than 90 projects have been awarded to Independent Power Producers (IPPs) within less than five years and almost 40 have already connected to the electricity grid, Minister of Energy Tina Joemat-Pettersson has said.
Joemat-Pettersson was speaking at the opening of the South African International Renewable Energy Conference (SAIREC) at the Cape Town International Convention Centre yesterday.
About 3 000 delegates from the private, public and academic sectors are expected to discuss strategies to accelerate the use of renewable energy during the conference which ends on Wednesday.
Joemat-Pettersson said the renewable energy independent power producer was part of the department’s Independent Power Producers Procurement Programme designed to contribute towards socio-economic and environmentally sustainable growth, and to start and stimulate the renewable industry.
So far, the initiative has contributed 4 294GWh to the national grid, while total payment to the IPPs has totalled R9.2 billion.
Joemat-Pettersson called the programme which has been running since 2010, “world class”.
“We are spearheading a programme which is tough but is a benchmark in what South Africa wants to do with renewable energy. It is a flagship programme.”
Joemat-Pettersson said the project was created after the onset of electricity capacity constraints in the country.
“Five years ago we had a vision that our generation capacity would include a large portion of renewable energy – gas, solar, wind and other forms of energy.
“We had to advance our generation capacity but also had to reduce the countries primary reliance on fossil fuels.
“We had to diversify the national network and stimulate an indigenous energy industry with the assistance of the private sector.”
Joemat-Pettersson, however, said the country grappled with a lack of resources to harness the country’s renewable resources, and had limited access to the appropriate technology for the job.
According to a report released by the department, detailing work in the Western Cape, of the 4 294GWh generated, 522GWh comes from the province, majority of which has been powered by wind.
One of the province’s biggest wind farms, now operational, is on the West Coast which has contributed 90.82MW of wind power capacity.
Department of Energy IPP department head Karen Breytenbach said nearly half of the awarded projects are owned by South Africans.
“When we started the programme this was new to us so we had to import almost everything.
“However, our IPPs have become more innovative and we can see how this initiative is growing from programme to programme,” she added.
CAPE ARGUS