The South African Photovoltaic Industry Association (Sapvia) has welcomed government’s stated intention of implementing the Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) 2019, which will contribute to the country’s Covid-19 recovery package.
“The IRP’s biggest opportunity is in low cost electricity, which would create additional operational and construction jobs, and only consistency will open the prospect for domestic manufacturing of renewable components.
“Embedded solar energy can also contribute to ensuring energy security in the short and medium term, which is now even more critical if we go into winter and there is a possible return of loadshedding,” says Sapvia COO Niveshen Govender.
The solar industry has a policy target to generate 6 GW of energy by 2030 and will contribute to the procurement of 2 000 MW of distributed energy by 2024. It is expected that this procurement will start soon.
“Implementation of the IRP is a valuable tool to kickstart our economic response to the pandemic, and can go a long way to giving our country the stability and certainty of a reliable power source,” says Govender.