Eskom CEO Jacob Maroga said this week that it was in the utility’s interest to ensure that renewable energy contribution to generation capacity was optimised, because climate change issues were firmly on the company’s agenda.

“We really want to be sure that the renewable agenda is firmly on track,” he said, noting that the potential for solar and wind power in South Africa was “huge”, and the utility needed to be able to mobilise that.

The comments, however, came after Maroga indicated that financial difficulties meant that a number of Eskom’s smaller projects had to be “deferred” into a different funding period. He added that once Eskom had established a more sustainable funding model, these smaller projects could once again come into the build programme.

“Yes, [this] impacts on some of the renewables and we are having a serious discussion to actually look at how we can accelerate the renewables,” Maroga said.

Maroga told Engineering News Online that Eskom was also investigating alternate funding models for renewable energy projects, such as looking to development financial institutions for funding.

At the company’s yearly results presentation, Eskom reported a loss of R9,7-billion for the year. The new build capital expansion programme would require some R385-billion over the next five years, and Maroga said that this capital would go to the bigger committed projects already under way. These were the Medupi and Kusile coal-fired projects, as well as the Ingula pumped-storage project.

The projects being deferred were: the nuclear project; a wind project; a concentrated solar power project; the Tubatse pumped storage project; and the Majuba rail project.

Eskom confirmed that “the climate change agenda is real and it is here”, and said that its medium to long-term plans were aligned to the government plans to mitigate and reduce relative emissions by 2025, and thereafter commit to real reduction.

Maroga stressed that the company’s carbon footprint “must change”, and said that Eskom would diversify its plant mix to reflect greenhouse gas mitigation.

“The cost of carbon is going to increase,” he affirmed, adding that this posed a risk for the company and the country.