Correct energy mix imperative for SA, says Gwede Mantashe

Mineral resources and energy minister Gwede Mantashe says the government remains committed to supporting renewable energy projects, but will not rush into transitioning the country from coal.

The minister was speaking at the signing of three power purchase agreements with wind power generators.

The three agreements were signed with Coleskop Wind Power, San Kraal Wind Power and Phezukomoya Wind Power, which are expected to contribute about 420MW of energy to the grid by December 2024.

“What I want to see is a situation where the debate on energy becomes less polarised. The IRP [Integrated Resource Plan] is a framework that propagates the development of mixed technologies,” Mantashe said.

“We need a lot of renewables ... to scale down on coal — not move out, scale down systematically. If we are reckless in moving out of coal, we are going to cause more disasters.

“In Mpumalanga’s coal belt, continuous coal mining covers 10 towns. It is the home of a number of power stations, which will be decommissioned over time. We have contributed 40% towards the cost of a pipeline because we think Eskom can repurpose some of the power stations from coal to gas.

“Europe has accepted gas and nuclear as part of the [energy] transition, so we can’t be left behind and believe that we can close everything else and just go for renewable.”

He said, however, that government’s early investments and forays into procuring renewable energy are already bearing fruit, and assured that cost concerns are a thing of the past.

“Bid windows 1 to 4 are all connected to the grid. They generate electricity and they put that energy in the grid ... [and] those bid windows were expensive. So when we give money to Eskom, don’t say it’s a bailout — describe [it] as a premium we pay for attracting technology into the economy.

“That technology scales down the price. That is the benefit of investing in a technology.

“Bid window 5 is the first bid window to come below the costs of generating and selling energy to Eskom because we have invested in the technology.”

Mantashe acknowledged the disruption caused by the energy generation crisis at Eskom.

He said Eskom power stations have a lot of untapped potential of up to 48,000MW in total.

“Eskom, at best, [currently] gives us 26,000MW. That’s why part of the solution is to optimise Eskom operations by servicing and maintaining the units that are not giving us energy.

“We think if we can invest in that, skills and resources, we will see a difference in terms of the shortfall in energy and we may resolve the energy crisis.”

SAGovNews