SAWEA CEO Ntombifuthi Ntuli
The long-awaited, Cabinet-approved 2019 Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) shows that South Africa is transitioning to a cleaner energy future, the South African Wind Energy Association (SAWEA) said on Friday, giving the government blueprint a thumbs-up.
The organisation welcomed the 14.4 GW allocation for wind power, which gave the technology 18% of projected total power generation capacity by 2030. Solar photovoltaic’s allocation would see its share climb to 6% and hydro's to 8%.
“With the bulk of the increase coming from renewable sources, it is a promising sign for our country as it faces pressure to reduce its carbon emissions and provide cheaper power,” said SAWEA CEO Ntombifuthi Ntuli.
She added that the wind industry viewed the commitment to 1.6 GW a year as a positive step, as it would allow original-equipment manufacturers and first-tier suppliers to commit to local manufacturing of certain components.
As businesses and consumers had to ensure several days of growth-denting load-shedding this week, SAWEA has highlighted the importance of procuring new generation capacity to replace power utility Eskom’s ageing coal-generation fleet.
“Wind energy should be a big part of that mix as it is quick to build (commercial operation within 24 months), and will reduce the cost of energy in South Africa, improving our competitiveness, which should boost the economy, particularly through investments in the manufacturing sector.
“. . . as soon as the IRP is gazetted we need to move swiftly into Ministerial determinations and then procurement,” said Ntuli.
Besides utility-scale generation, the wind industry was geared to supply electricity directly to energy-intensive users through private power purchase agreements.
Ntuli said this would address a lot of capacity challenges and ultimately avoid load-shedding, which hindered economic stability and growth. However, to achieve the wind sector’s potential requires policy support – generation licences and a wheeling policy framework.
Being at a key stage of the country’s energy transition, SAWEA hoped that the country’s plentiful wind resources would be harnessed to strengthen the power mix, considering the evidence that renewable power costs were competitive with that of new coal.
Ntuli quoted a study by the Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research, which indicated that the wind resource potential in South Africa was “extremely good”, stating that wind turbines with extraordinarily high load factors could be operated on 80% of South Africa’s surface area, including along the coast and inland.