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South Africa receives major solar energy boost

Source: By News24 Wire, 05/10/2015

Solar energy received a boost on Monday, when Energy Minister Tina
Joemat-Pettersson announced a new power procurement project in the
Northern Cape to deliver 1 500 MW of solar energy.

The additional procurement was a Department of Energy legacy project
to mark the SA International Renewable Energy Conference taking place
in Cape Town this week.

"It is a ministerial legacy project to ensure we remember this
conference," the minister told media after her opening address on
Monday.

The announcement is the first step in a process that will seek bids
from independent power producers (IPPs) and will likely only feed into
the grid between 2019 and 2020.

Renewable energy is gaining steam both in South Africa and globally
and SA`s IPP programme has been heralded as a success story.

With a target of 5 000 MW of solar energy and 5 000 MW of wind energy
by 2030 in place, the IPP office has successfully attracted
much-needed investment in the renewable energy sector.

In April, the minister approved 13 new renewable IPP bids, which means
there will now be 79 IPP projects with 5 243 MW being added to a
national grid desperately in need of power.

"To date, more than 6 000 MWh of electricity had been procured from 37
renewable-energy IPPs," said Joemat-Pettersson.

"To date, renewable energy projects in South Africa have resulted in
20 000 jobs for South Africans and attracted R192.6bn in investment,"
she said.

IPP office for Africa
Joemat-Pettersson said the IPP office mandate will come to an end in
this month and will be reshaped to grow its level of influence in
South African and in the broader continent.

"The IPP office is a success story that we would like to duplicate in
other countries," she said. "The reshaping of the office has started
in earnest and will have a larger mandate.

"We would like to invite businesses and stakeholders to comment on
what it is they appreciated in the office and what we could do
better," she said. "The success story is because we pulled together a
sound group of skills, which allowed us to work effectively and
efficiently to meet time frames.

"Policy certainty around the programme and integration with other
demands has allowed the programme to be sustainable," she said. "We
must build on the success of this innovation, but look at transferring
skills and technologies."

Fin24

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