SAWEA welcomes South Africa’s commitment to renewable energy

The South African Wind Energy Association (SAWEA) has backed South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa’s firm commitment to renewable energy power procurement programme (REI4P).

In a statement issued by the association, they strongly support this reaffirmation and stated that the wind power sector is ready to deliver on new projects that will increase the supply of clean power, thereby helping the country meet its commitments under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and its Paris Agreement, of a net zero emissions target by 2050.

“The Industry is reassured to receive such strong support from the President for a second year running, as he acknowledged the key role that the country’s renewable industry has to play in delivering power and supporting economic recovery, by closing the ever increasing electricity supply capacity gap” said Ntombifuthi Ntuli, CEO of SAWEA.

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Increasing new power generation

President Ramaphosa’s actively prioritized the role of increasing new power generation over the next five years, in order to close the current capacity gap that is crippling the country and hampering sustainable economic activity in the form of rolling blackouts. The situation was however made worse by the economic fallout of the current health pandemic. He has further reinterred the importance of regaining investor confidence and has set a firm target to fix the energy availability factor, by closing the 5 000MW capacity gap that will be created by closing of old power station over the next 5 years.

President Ramaphosa’s announcement of two bidding rounds, which will collectively procure 2 600MW this year, alludes to the heady days when the REI4P was kicked off, which resulted in substantial new wind power generation capacity in South Africa as well as attracting billions of Rands in foreign and domestic investment.

“The Industry is reassured to receive such strong support from the President for a second year running, as he acknowledged the key role that the country’s renewable industry has to play in delivering power and supporting economic recovery, by closing the ever increasing electricity supply capacity gap,” said Ntombifuthi Ntuli, CEO of SAWEA.

Additionally, the sector looks forward to the announcement of preferred bidders for the Risk Mitigation Power Procurement Programme, as wind projects were part of the bid submissions. SAWEA views this emergency procurement round as can opportunity to create the continuity of the industry as the construction of Round 4 projects is drawing to a close this year.