Out-Law News 2 min. read
15 Oct 2015, 2:32 pm
Energy minister Tina Joemat-Petterson described plans for the plant, which will form part of South Africa’s growing renewable energy programme, as a “ministerial legacy project for my home province and country”.
Joemat-Petterson told the South African Renewable Energy Conference that the plant would be in addition to all earlier announcements she had made concerning power infrastructure commitments to expand the country’s ability to boost electricity supplies from renewables. However, she gave no details about investors or firms who would be involved in the project.
Last June, Joemat-Petterson said 13 preferred bidders had been selected under the national renewable energy programme to work on projects “tipped to supply an additional 1,084 MW of electricity to the national grid”.
The South African Government News Agency said the new Northern Cape project “will be a much needed addition to the Department of Energy’s independent power producer programme (IPP)”, which it said has helped the government procure 6,000 megawatt hours of electricity generation to date.
According to the agency, the IPP programme “is seen as a valuable contribution to the power grid which has until recently been buckling under strain” because of major power shortages.
The IPP office was established within the energy department in 2011, in partnership with South Africa’s National Treasury and the Development Bank of Southern Africa, to step up procurement from the private sector.
The agency said the IPP office “would look at re-shaping its mandate” which expires at the end of October 2015, “to build on its successes”. The private sector “and other stakeholders are invited to give input on the shape they would like the office to take, given its past operations, challenges and successes”.
Earlier this year, Italian renewables developer Enel Green Power (EGP) started building the Pulida solar power plant in South Africa’s Free State province. EPG said the 82.5 MW plant will be able to generate more than 150 gigawatt hours of electricity each year when fully operational, which EGP said is “equivalent to the annual consumption needs of around 48,000 South African homes”.
Electricity from Pulida will be sold to South African national utility Eskom under a 20-year power supply deal, agreed as part of the government-backed ‘renewable energy independent power producer procurement programme’ (REIPPPP).
In addition to Pulida, EPG was given the go-ahead earlier to build the Gibson Bay (111 MW) and Nojoli (88 MW) wind farms, as well as the Aurora (82.5 MW), Paleisheuwel (82.5 MW) and Tom Burke (66 MW) solar power projects – all in South Africa. The company, which also owns and manages the country’s 10 MW Upington solar facility, was also awarded a further 425 MW of South African wind power projects in the fourth phase of the REIPPPP.
Four large scale solar plants went online in South Africa in the first-half of 2014 as part of the first round of the REIPPPP programme. According to a study published last year, South Africa moved into the top 10 rankings of countries harnessing renewable energy from the sun, having connected more than half-a-gigawatt of utility-scale solar power to the national grid.
Figures from a separate study published this year by the South African government-owned Council for Scientific and Industrial Research said renewable energy from South Africa’s first wind and solar plants generated a “net financial benefit” of around $702,000 for the country in 2014.
