South Africa's Renewables Program Approves an Additional 1,475 Megawatts in Projects

Written by Richard Finlayson, Senior International Editor for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--South Africa's Department of Energy (DOE) has sent a letter of appointment to 17 successful bidders from the third phase of bidding in the country's renewable energy program. The independent power producer (IPP) program has made steady progress and has remained on schedule, which is a welcome development for the power sector, and for the broad community of power users in the country who are suffering from "broken promise" fatigue since the blackouts of 2008.

The DOE plans to add 3,725 megawatts (MW) of installed renewable energy capacity by the end of 2016, in five tender phases. It has been proposed that, following the tenders, a minimum of 1,000 MW of renewable energy will be installed annually on an ongoing basis.

The current tranche of 17 projects could add 1,475.5 MW to the national grid and represent a project investment of $3.3 billion. In the previous bidding rounds, 47 projects were given the go-ahead to construct about 2,400 MW of renewable projects, with an estimated investment value of $15 billion.

The breakdown of renewable energy project technologies in the third round were:

• Onshore wind - seven preferred bidders totaling 787 MW
• Solar PV (photovoltaic) - six preferred bidders totaling 450 MW
• Biomass - one preferred bidder of 16.5 MW
• Landfill gas - one preferred bidder of 18 MW
• Concentrated solar - two preferred bidders totaling 200 MW

The third round elicited bids for more than 6,000 MW in projects. Some of the unsuccessful bids may be re-considered under a 2,000-MW off-program dispensation, if all the requirements and funding are met.

South African Energy Minister Ben Martins said that the accepted projects in the third round of bidding would contribute $440 million to socio-economic development in the country.

The first power to feed into the grid from projects in the first three phases of the program is due in 2014.

For related information, see May 13, 2013, article - Second Round of South Africa's Renewable Program to Add 1,044 Megawatts, and May 28, 2013, article - South Africa's Strong Renewables Program Boots Equipment Manufacturing Projects.

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