As the deadline for public comment on the draft Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) and Integrated Energy Plan (IEP) 2016 approaches, the South African Photovoltaic Industry Association (Sapvia) has reiterated its call for the use of the “least-cost” approach in South Africa’s future energy mix.
The public participation period closes on Friday – with expectations that the plans will be finalised by August or September – after the Department of Energy (DoE) embarked on a countrywide public consultation roadshow earlier this year.
On the eve of the deadline, several organisations have spoken out about the IRP placing constraints on renewable energy’s future contributions to the national grid within the proposed energy mix, despite studies revealing that South Africa will not need to make the traditional trade-off between investing in either clean or least-cost electricity production.
“The biggest issue with the draft IRP 2016 is that it artificially limits the amount of renewable energy that can be added to the grid over the next 20 years with no rationale for imposing them,” Sapvia CEO and Ministerial Committee on Energy member Mike Levington said on Thursday.
This meant greater allocations for nuclear and coal, at higher costs than new solar and wind energy.
“Sapvia has recommended that the least-cost unconstrained scenario of the IRP be adopted as the base case scenario. This will ensure that the mix of technologies included in the IRP 2016 is chosen according to those that are most cost-effective and reliable,” he added.
The group pointed to recent models and research released by the Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) that showed that solar photovoltaic (PV) and wind energy provided the cheapest new sources of generation capacity.
In January, the CSIR model produced a base case that increased the yearly limits placed on the amount of wind and solar PV and used the 62c/kWh prices achieved in the most recent bid-window of the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP) to show a least-cost energy-mix some R80-billion cheaper than the DoE’s base case also producing 130-million tons less carbon dioxide emissions and consuming 29-billion litres less water a year.
Engineering News Online previously reported that the model found the least-cost mix to deliver the 525 TWh/y assumed by 2050 comprised more than 70% solar PV and wind, backed by gas, hydro and a small amount of coal-fired capacity.
Sapvia reiterated that rapid advancements in renewable energy have meant that the cost of new-build solar PV and wind energy have plummeted from R3.65/kWh in Round 1 to R0.62/kWh in Round 4 of the REIPPPP.
“This price is significantly lower than the tariff prices for coal from IPPs (R1.03/kWh), Eskom coal (R1.10/kWh) and nuclear power which is estimated at between R1.17/kWh to R1.30/kWh,” said Levington.
The World Wide Fund for Nature-South Africa (WWF-SA), meanwhile, said the first drafts of the IRP and IEP fell short of government’s ambitions within the National Development Plan and underscored the importance of South Africa’s need to embrace renewable energy as the country’s single largest potential energy source.
“Wind and solar power are now demonstrably the cheapest sources of power in the world, and through smart investments in electric vehicles and transport, the possibility exists to move completely away from the fossil-fuel heavy development paradigm that is destroying the world,” WWF-SA land and climate project manager James Reeler said.
WWF believed that South Africa needed to embrace renewable energy and build on the “good start” made by the REIPPPP to decarbonise the energy sector and steer away from “costly nuclear power and dirty coal”.