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Renewable energy: Mining industry likely to snap up Ramaphosa’s power offer
Pabalelo Jan Morena • Jun 23, 2021
Government has now given mining companies the ability to generate 100MW of power. So what happens now? Will the companies use this facility and, if so, how? And what effect will it have? Arguably, the company furthest down the line is gold miner Pan African Resources, which is already close to producing 10MW of solar photovoltaic power at its Evander mine.
Engineering Trends & Insights
Around 17,000MW of renewable energy capacity can be built for the same cost as Eskom’s troubled Medupi and Kusile coal power stations, estimates from energy expert Chris Yelland have shown.
Eskom's winter load shedding is fast approaching its upper forecast limit, with plant breakdowns reducing the utility's capacity by more than 15,000MW on Wednesday morning (09/06/2021).
Seizing green energy opportunities through increased private sector investments can contribute to South Africa's post-Covid-19 recovery, especially considering that the country faces a possible gross domestic product (GDP) contraction of up to 16% in real terms because of local supply and demand effects, suppression in prices and lower exports, .
South Africa already has the abundant supply of resources needed to fuel the alternative energy space, including solar irradiance in the Northern Cape, local minerals that make up key components of energy storage batteries and untapped natural gas pockets.
The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research and the Department of Minerals and Energy have estimated that Stage 2 load-shedding costs the economy R150-million an hour.
This is posing a threat to South Africa’s economic recovery from Covid-19 and it is critical to fast-track emergency procurement of additional energy generation to plug the short-term supply gap, says powership provider Karpowership.