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SA could have major advantage with renewable energy, say experts

Source: Fin24, 05/02/2019


Because of this, electricity from solar and wind would always be
about 30% lower in South Africa than it would be in other parts of
the world, which would make the country an attractive destination
for companies that were energy-intensive.
Bischof-Niemz, a renewable energy expert and former head of the
energy centre at the CSIR, was one of the speakers on a Sanedi
panel discussion in Cape Town on the sidelines of the Mining
Indaba.
Bischof-Niemz said the cost of solar PV and wind power had
declined so much that it was now the cheapest electricity option
for many countries for new power generation.
By 2050 most of the global electricity supply would be generated
by solar PV and wind, he said.
The draft Integrated Resource Plan (IRP), the road map for South
Africa’s future electricity mix, had recognised this, which was a
good sign for the country. Another advantage of renewables was
that they were more labour intensive than the current forms of
electricity generation â€` although this may not appear to be so
when casually viewed from the outside.
Bischof-Niemz said a coal power station like the huge Medupi,
still under construction, would employ between 600 to 800 people
fulltime.
“The impression may be that coal generation is labour intensive,
and when you drive passed a wind farm you may see only about eight
people.”
But that was not the way to compare job creation from different
power sources.
“The reality is that Medupi produces 100 times more energy than
the largest wind farm. So the right way to compare them is by the
number of permanent jobs created by the unit of energy produced.
Then you will see that renewable energy is more labour intensive
than coal, so there is a net benefit to the country for jobs.”
The downside was that most of the current energy infrastructure
was located in Mpumalanga, where the coal resources were.
Renewable energy power plants would be spread across the country.
“In the future energy system there will be more people employed
but across the country, which is good, but it is irrelevant for
the individual coal miner in Mpumalanga.”
Because of this, there was an obligation on the country to ensure
the declining jobs in the coal sector were absorbed by deploying
new energy infrastructure, solar PV or wind plants, close to the
old coal areas.
Bischof-Niemz said it was incorrect to say that solar and wind
power was “intermittent”, which implied that there would be
unforeseen stops in generation. This was not the case.
“Wind and solar power is not intermittent. It is variable, it
changes over time, and these changes are predictable.”
Forecasts allowed energy operators to foresee changes in wind and
sunshine availability, and deal with these by bringing on a
flexible power supply, such as gas, during those times.
“You need other power generation to kick in when there is not
enough of solar and wind. You can’t do that with coal.”
The complimentary power generation, such as gas, would provide
about 10% of power generation over time, the rest would come from
renewables.
Bischof-Niemz said if South Africa were to construct an
electricity system from scratch, 90% of the country’s needs could
be supplied by wind and solar, with 10% from gas or biogas. The
reality was that we had a big, existing coal powered electricity
system. How much renewables South Africa would bring in would
depend on how quickly Eskom’s coal fleet was ramped down.
“The coal fleet is aging with such speed.”
It may be that by 2050 the only coal power stations were Medupi
and Kusile.


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