The renewable energy industry is growing rapidly despite the improved performance of Eskom’s generation fleet, which has enabled the utility to keep the lights on.
In the third quarter alone, energy regulator Nersa registered more than 2,000MW of projects for private sector off-takers. This brings the total new registrations for the year to date to 3,300MW and the total since last year, when registrations started after the government lifted the licensing threshold, to 8,700MW, of which 6,430MW is already installed, according to Eskom.
Deputy electricity and energy minister Samantha Graham-Maré said: “It demonstrates confidence in SA’s renewable energy market is growing, and we will build on this momentum. Our goal is to accelerate more gigawatts of renewable energy by continuing to remove unnecessary institutional red tape and making SA an even more attractive proposition for investors.”
A milestone was reached when the first wind farm for a private off-taker was commissioned and started commercial operations earlier in October.
The 69MW Msenge Emoyeni wind farm, located south of Bedford in the Eastern Cape, comprises 16 4.5MW turbines and wheels clean energy through the Eskom grid to Sasol’s Sasolburg plant for the production of green hydrogen in terms of a long-term power purchase agreement.
Sasol CEO Simon Baloyi said this was a tangible step forward as one of the largest private procurers of renewable energy in SA to advance its renewable strategy.
The petrochemical giant has so far procured 750MW of renewable energy in its drive to reach the target of 1,200MW by 2030 to reduce its carbon emissions.
A milestone was reached when the first wind farm for a private off-taker was commissioned and started commercial operations earlier in October.
Eskom’s own total dispatchable generation capacity is 49,389MW and the utility estimates embedded rooftop solar that does not require registration adds another 6,141MW of generation capacity to the grid.
This comes against the background of efforts by electricity and energy minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa to remove obstacles and reignite the government’s Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme.
Ramokgopa recently met stakeholders in the renewable energy industry to hear proposals and has promised changes to the programme will follow in the next few weeks.
The government has so far procured 8,250MW, of which 6,353MW is in operation and 1,897MW is in construction. The programme has attracted R272bn in investment for projects that reached financial close, of which R50bn (18%) came from foreign investors.
Since the beginning of the programme the average price per kWh dropped by 88% for solar PV from R4,66 to 56c and by 70% for wind energy from R1,93 to 58c.
The same trend is expected for battery storage, which was recently introduced into the programme. The government has so far procured 1,744MW and a milestone was reached in October when the first two battery storage independent power producers (IPPs) reached commercial close.
That is when the risk of variables, including interest and exchange rates, is transferred to the developer.
Mogobe battery energy storage system (Bess), with a contracted capacity of 103MW, will be connected to Eskom’s Mogobe substation close to Kathu in the Northern Cape. Oasis Mookodi, with a contracted capacity of 77MW, will be located at Mookodi substation close to Vryburg in North West.
Jan Fourie, CEO of Mulilo Renewable Project Development, which developed Oasis Mookodi in partnership with EDF International, said Bess projects were critical for SA’s electricity generation fleet to increase the country’s integration of variable renewable energy sources such as solar and wind.
“Bess stabilises the grid by storing excess energy during low demand periods and releasing it during peak demand, effectively mitigating load-shedding and enhancing grid reliability.”
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