Eskom rejects Greenpeace plea

Greenpeace has challenged Eskom in a spoof advertisement to cancel the building of its multi-billion-rand coal-fired power plant.

The electricity utility's response to Greenpeace Africa's challenge was a stolid "no".

Published as an open letter in Business Day by Greenpeace Africa, the spoof advertisement reads: "Eskom cancels Kusile to save South Africa's water".

In the letter, Greenpeace calls on Eskom to focus instead on developing renewable resources.

"Wind and solar are something this country needs to invest in," said Melita Steele, Greenpeace Africa spokesman.

In its response, Eskom said the demand for power in South Africa justified the building of two coal-fired power plants - Kusile and Medupi.

The Medupi plant is nearing completion and Kusile, according to Eskom spokesman Hilary Joffe, is "on track to start emitting power to the national grid by 2014".

Greenpeace says the new plant will use 173 times more water than wind-derived energy.

At present, wind turbines generate close to 130MW of energy, solar power about 100MW, according to Greenpeace.

But Eskom says that each of the coal-fired plants would generate about 4800MW.

"If we're to support economic growth and job investment, we need to make sure we can electrify households.

"Neither wind farms nor solar plants generate electricity all the time. That's why you need both baseload [sources] and renewables," it said.

According to Bruno Merven, a researcher at the Energy Research Centre at the University of Cape Town, solar, wind and nuclear power can provide only a very limited amount of electricity.

Baseload power supply is the minimum amount of power needed to meet consumer demand.

"Solar thermal plants with improved storage capabilities could in the long-term provide this. But right now the only option for baseload is coal, given the ground that has already been covered in the Kusile project," Merven said.

Yolanda de Lange, Southern African Association for Energy Efficiency spokesman, said: "We believe in a healthy energy mix.

"It would be economically impossible to only use wind or solar power."