Renewable energy’s contribution to South Africa’s energy mix and the challenges and opportunities in the broader Southern African energy sector will be key topics of discussion at the upcoming Spain–South Africa Investment Forum.

The forum, which would be hosted by the Spanish Embassy, would be held at the Hilton Hotel, in Sandton, on July 7.

Embassy of Spain trade commissioner Enrique Manzanares told Engineering News Online that Spanish investments in South Africa had grown to €6-billion in 2014, from €2.2-billion in 2010, with 4% of South Africa’s imported goods coming from Spain.

Spanish companies had also made significant investments in South Africa’s renewable-energy sector, with about 20 Spanish-owned renewable-energy projects under construction in the Northern Cape.

Manzanares lauded the success of the country’s Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP).

“It has achieved fantastic goals in its four years of existence and more than 5 000 MW had been awarded since its inception in 2011,” he said.

He added that the cost of bids for registered REIPPPP projects had decreased by 45% since the first round and that the use of local components had climbed from, on average, 25% in round 1 to 50% in round 4.

He emphasised that 17 500 direct jobs had been created by Spanish and South African companies in the renewable-energy sector during this time.

Manzanares added that Spanish companies were obtaining about one-third of the REIPPPP contracts, which had been an important factor in driving the growth of bilateral relations between the two countries.

Meanwhile, he pointed out that a bilateral technological cooperation programme, South Africa & Spain Innovation (SASI), was being developed by the Spanish Center for Industrial Technology Development and the South African Technology Innovation Agency to promote the technological cooperation between South African and Spanish entities.

“The recent signing of the publicly-funded, intergovernmental network Eureka Programme in South Africa and the direct involvement of South Africa in the Science 6 Technology Department allowed for the implementation of SASI to be sped up,” he said.