South Africa to announce preferred bidder for 2,600MW renewable energy project

The government of South Africa through the Ministry of Resources and Energy is set to announce the preferred bidder for 2,600MW of renewable energy under Bid Window 5. Mr. Gwede Mantashe said the announcement will be made by the end of next month.

“The department is in the process of procuring a further 6 800 megawatts of renewable energy. From this proposal, 2 600 megawatts will be under Bid Window 5, which is being evaluated, with the preferred bidder announcement planned for the month of October 2021.The remainder of the 6 800 megawatts capacity is planned for procurement before the end of March 2022,” said the Minister.

Mantashe said renewable energy now accounts for just under 10% of electricity supply, with the country still heavily reliant on Eskom. To date, the department has completed the procurement of 6 422 MW of renewable energy. Through four bidding rounds, as at the end of June this year, 5 422MW has already connected to the grid and is part of the energy supply.

READ:What South Africa needs to run on 100% renewable energy at lowest cost

Integrated Resource Plan 2019

“In line with the Integrated Resource Plan 2019, additional renewable energy capacity will be released to Eskom and municipalities as and when requested, when requests for Section 24 determination are received. The biggest allocation for new generation capacity to be developed between now and the year 2030 is renewable energy. The Integrated Resource Plan 2019 provides for 14 400MW of additional wind power, 6 000MW megawatts of additional solar power and 2 088 megawatts of battery storage,” said Mantashe

“What we should always take into account is that renewable energy is relatively new technology in South Africa and if you look at Bid Window 1, 2, 3, and a little bit of Bid Window 4, one of the issues was that it was expensive to build renewable energy,” he added.

To combat high costs, Mantashe said his department is working towards localising the manufacturing of renewable energy components in the country, which is expected to lead to job creation.