6 minute read
ENERGY
10 YEARS
of CLEAN ENERGY
Advertisement
The South African Wind Energy Association and the South African Photovoltaic Industry Association are celebrating 10 years of the South African renewable energy industry this year.
SAPVIA: NEW DECADE, NEW APPROACH
South Africa’s leading member association for the promotion of solar PV steps into a second decade of success with the election of a new board.
SAPVIA this year celebrates 10 years of pushing boundaries in the sector through proactive policy advocacy and lobbying efforts. The association has been at the forefront of transforming South Africa’s economy and energy sector. SAPVIA’s growth over the past 10 years reflects the flourishing renewables sector and from just six members a decade ago, the association now boasts 544 members across the solar PV value chain.
“We have come a long way since our formation and as a body we are excited to step into this new chapter with a multitalented team steering us,” says SAPVIA COO, Niveshen Govender. “Our focus for the year ahead is navigating a post-Covid economic recovery that has renewables and solar PV at its heart.”
NEW SAPVIA BOARD 2021
““The global PV sector is booming. In the last year alone 127GW of solar PV has been added to the grid internationally. The IRP is aiming for solar PV to contribute 10% to our energy mix by 2030, but together we can achieve so much more. This coming year will see distributed generation also play a more prominent role in our energy mix. This is a welcome shift and we fully support the legislation changes that should see jobs created, localisation and industrialisation enhanced as well as alleviating the pressure on Eskom’s constrained supply. SAPVIA has achieved to date 2 000MW private solar generation and South Africa is about to wake up to generous energy from the sun. Welcome to the future.”
Wido Schnabel, chairperson
“Solar is a game changer. Not just for the economy but for every household in South Africa. With the right enabling legislation, investment and focus from industry, and of course sunshine, we can power the economic recovery.”
Chanda Nxumalo, spokesperson
“SAPVIA’s role continues to be to shine the light on the vast opportunities held by rolling out and growing the solar PV sector in South Africa and the rest of the continent. This, responsibly and with a deep cognisance of the need to attain a just energy transition.”
Maloba Tshehla, deputy spokesperson
“Solar energy enables generation co-located at load centres and by utility-scale projects to feed into the grid, allowing generation capacity to be added in a sustainable manner. The cost reductions we have seen in recent years, as well as the advancement of ancillary technologies, has opened exciting opportunities to unlock prosperity for all south African citizens.”
Daniel Goldstuck, deputy spokesperson
The other Manco members are: Sunette Smith, treasurer, Rainer Nowak, legal representative. Richard Doyle, Frank Spencer, DeVilliers Botha and Norman Moyo are the board members. Outgoing members are Jo-Anne Dean, Boitumelo Kiepile and Vuyo Ntoi.
“This is a dynamic sector and in the last year we have seen significant progress in realising our ambitions for solar PV to be the electricity generation technology of choice in South Africa.
Renewable energy in general has taken a leap forward with the implementation of the IRP and this progress is incredibly encouraging, not least due to the announcement of Bid Window 5 and 6, which is helpful in providing investor confidence as well as a sense that the vision is soon to become tangible reality.
The RMIPPPP concluded in the first few months of 2021 with 25% awarded to renewable energy, is a great testament to the efficacy of renewable energy, given the challenging requirements of the programme. We were delighted to see the industry step up with innovative bids that overcame the obstacles and showed that renewable energy could compete and win against traditional energy solutions. The government has not rested on its laurels with the REIPPPP and it is fantastic to see the announcement of changes to the licence exemption limits, which will pave the way forward to the development of a more robust commercial and industrial segment. The regulations will also allow municipalities to procure from IPPs, which will result in the creation of a new market segment.”
Niveshen Govender, SAPVIA COO
SAWEA: 4-MILLION HOUSEHOLDS POWERED BY WIND
The first wind project became operational on 1 February 2014, and since then wind power has contributed 28 000GWh of energy, which is more than half of all renewable energy produced .
To date, 27 wind farms have successfully been connected to the national grid, increasing installed wind power capacity to almost 2 500MW. There are seven more projects currently in final stages of construction, which should bring an additional capacity of 870MW into the grid by end of 2021, thus contributing even further to resolving the power crisis.
The impact that the R80.5-billion invested in wind power deployment has made on the South African economy is immeasurable. This investment has created 16 000 job years in the construction phase and will deliver 13 000 job years over a 20-year operational period. 31% of the equity in the wind sector is held by BBBEE shareholders, and through preferential procurement, R24-billion of the spend in the sector has been allocated to BBBEE companies. Furthermore, local communities collectively own 10% of equity in the wind sector, which enables communities to have a direct stake in projects built in their areas and extends their economic benefits beyond socio-economic development. This demonstrates that the sector fully embraces the country’s transformation agenda.
The wind sector has been in the forefront of supporting localisation and industrialisation and has spent R20.8-billion on local content to date, which also resulted in the establishment of local tower manufacturing facilities. The biggest lesson from the last decade of wind power is that localisation requires continuous demand and long-term visibility of procurement plans. The stop-start nature of procurement has resulted in disinvestments in the past, with several renewable energy component manufacturers closing shop, including a wind tower manufacturing facility in Gqeberha.
Furthermore, wind power investment has had a substantial impact on local communities, with R520-million spent on socio-economic development programmes such as women empowerment, skills and capacity development, education, social welfare, poverty alleviation as well as social infrastructure. Wind farms are also supporting enterprise development initiatives in the areas they operate in and has to date spent R155-million on such initiatives to develop local businesses.
South Africa is a signatory to the Paris Agreement on climate change, and subsequently submitted the Nationally Determined Commitments, which outline a target to limit greenhouse gas emissions. The growth of wind power over the last decade has made a significant contribution towards meeting these commitments. The sector has contributed 28.8 metric tons carbon emission reduction equivalent to date and will continue to contribute even more over the next decades, thus getting the country closer to reaching a net-zero carbon economy by 2050. Wind power not only makes an impact on climate change but has also achieved water savings of over 25-million kilolitres.
“The last decade has demonstrated that wind power adds costeffective and reliable capacity to the power grid in record time and is an excellent vehicle for direct infrastructure investment and is a positive multiplier of economic effects, while making a positive impact on the environment. We are proud of wind industry achievements in the past 10 years, and we look forward to contributing even more in the next decade as we install a further 14.4GW of wind power capacity, which will attract an estimated R360-billion to the SA economy” says Ntombifuthi Ntuli, CEO of SAWEA.
Golden Valley Wind Energy Facility.
