SOUTH AFRICA GOVERNMENT PUNTS RENEWABLE ENERGY

South Africa government is set to put plan of renewable energy to use

South Africa government has launch its weight behind renewable energy in the new integrated resources plan (IRP). Meanwhile, the plan will see no increase in use of nuclear energy up until the year 2030.

Minister of Energy Jeff Radebe said ”There will be detailed technical analysis to see how much may be needed post 2030- up until 2050. He also said the actual total electricity consume is less than 30% of the projected IRP”

The new IRP has taken into account the changing electricity demand. Meanwhile, technology cost has been improve and considerations were made on the constraints to renewables.

According to the minster, the recommendation plan will use the least cost plan as a starting point, without constraints to renewable energy. It will also includes coal, hydro power, existing PV (photovoltaic), wind and gas.

The total installed capacity mix in 2030. Meanwhile it will be split into 34 000 MW coal (or 46% of total installed capacity), 1 860 MW nuclear (or 2.5%), 4 696 MW hydro (or 6%), 2 912 MW pump storage (or 4%), 7 958 MW PV (10%), 11 442 MW wind (15%), 600 MW concentrated solar power (1%) and 11 930 MW gas (16%).

According to Radebe, coal capacity will be lower than the install capacity. He also said that it will still contribute 65% of energy volumes. Nuclear will only contribute about 4%. The public has 60 days to comment on the IRP plan.

For more information, go through other articles on GambetaNews.