South Africa: Huge Response to Call for Renewable Energy Options

There has been a huge response to the Western Cape government’s call for proposals on renewable energy options like wind, wave and solar power, with calls flooding in from all over the country and across the world.

This was revealed by Mark Gordon, director of strategic environmental management in the provincial Environmental Affairs and Development Planning department, who was attending the sod-turning ceremony to mark the start of construction of South Africa’s first commercial wind farm just outside Darling earlier this week.
“South Africa is a good destination (for renewable energy investment) and especially the Western Cape, because we are unique in terms of our energy security and vulnerability.

“I think we are quite well positioned to explore the area of renewable energy. We’ve established a business case already – this first wind farm here at Darling – so it’s a matter of connecting up the generators (of electricity) with the funders and investors.”

The current energy mix in the Western Cape is about 50% nuclear-generated from Koeberg, and 50% from Eskom’s coal-fired power stations up-country, Gordon said.

“But that latter 50% is very vulnerable in terms of the transmission not being very stable, so any form of renewable energy would be most welcome, especially for our peaks (in demand).

“If we have to postulate a growth of 6% (gross domestic product) against a 3% growth in electricity, straight away there’s a major gap.

AllAfrica