Wind energy to give communities a R10bn boost
The money being put into local community development around wind farms will rise from the present R5bn over the next 20 years to at least R10bn and perhaps much more, South African Wind Energy Association (Sawea) CEO Johan van den Berg said in a statement.
On Thursday, Minister of Energy Tina Joemat-Petterssen announced that she intends making a ministerial determination for an additional 6 300 MW of renewable energy to be procured, over and above the existing 5 243 MWs that have taken the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme process to the end of round 4.
The Department of Energy approved 13 new renewable independent power producer (IPP) bids, which means there will now be 79 IPP projects set to push desperately-needed power into the national grid.
According to Sawea, wind energy is generally granted half the allocated megawatts. By this logic, said Van den Berg, we're looking at perhaps an additional 2 500 to 3 000 MW of wind power and a procurement process that extends another three to four years into the future."
Local parts
Van den berg is also upbeat about a big boost to South Africas prospects to supply parts from local factories to these wind farms.
This... should give comfort to international investors to invest in local factories that can push the local content of wind farms to about 54%, with the upper 60s in reach, he said.
The 1 121 MW granted for this round constitutes an expanded allocation, as only around 400 MW was originally earmarked for this window.
Wind energy projects have been awarded a total of 676 MW, spread between five separate projects. A further 415 MW has been attributed to solar PV projects, 25 MW to biomass and 5 MW to hydro power.
Social pact with government
South African renewable energy company BioTherm has won a bid to provide 251 MW of power as part of the programme and plans to start supplying the grid in 2017.
BioTherm CEO Jasandra Nyker told Fin24 that 800 jobs will be created during the construction phase across the three projects. Total investment associated with the projects is in the region of R4.5bn.
Nyker told Fin24 that the company plans to start supplying power to SA's grid in 2017.
Van den Berg believes that the wind industry will continue its growth while continuing to deliver on its social pact with government. Jobs and rural development, industrialisation and enterprise development are aspects as important as electrons on the grid."
Author: Dane MacDonald, News 24
(File Photo: Gallo Images)