Renewable energy programme stimulates overseas interest

More than 870 people converged on Gallagher Estate in Midrand for the Department of Energy's (DoE's) renewable energy independent power producer (IPP) programme bidders' conference. An Engineering News report notes that the gathering attracted interest from serious renewables developers from Europe, North America and Asia and represented another milestone in the process to procure the first 3 725 MW of renewables capacity by 2016, with the tender documents having been made available on 3 August 2011. The programme, while modest relative to capacity deployed in other countries, represented one of the largest single renewables procurement initiatives under way globally. First bids would have to be submitted by 4 November and preferred bidders should be named during the 17th Conference of the Parties (COP 17) climate conference in Durban from in late November, early December. Government indicated that it had been pleased with the response, which at one stage was uncertain, owing to the initial disquiet over the authorities' decision to abandon renewable energy feed-in tariffs, or Refit, in favour of a competitive bidding process. Full Engineering News report See also a BuaNews report

Environmental compliance certification for power projects whose owners are bidding in the IPP procurement programme will be fast-tracked, Energy Department Director-General Nelisiwe Magubane said, according to a Business Day report. The department's insistence that bidders must have environmental compliance authorisation for each project is likely to put pressure on the Department of Environmental Affairs, which will have to process the applications. The Energy Department has insisted that companies without environmental compliance authorisation should not bid. However, the department has also said it wants only the most reliable and bankable projects to go ahead. But prospective bidders who were not ready by 4 November could wait for the second bidding phase, which closes on 4 March next year. Full Business Day report

Energy Minister Dipuo Peters said at the same conference that she had signed off on a proposal for new nuclear power plants which will go to the Cabinet soon. According to a report on the Fin24.com site, Peters also said she expects the Cabinet to decide on the plan by the end of this year and the bidding process to start early in 2012. The Minister said she expected the first power from those plants, which are slated to provide 9 600 MW or about a quarter of the current supply, to start flowing through the national grid in 2024 or 2025. Previous plans had called for additional nuclear generation by 2023 but Peters said that had been put off a year or two because of revisions in the wake of Japan's power plant disaster earlier this year. But she said there was no risk of blackouts to Africa's largest economy because of an accelerated renewable energy programme, according to the report. Full report on the Fin24 site

But environmental groups have slammed the government's decision to build nuclear plants, saying it will not lead to energy security for SA, notes a report on the News24 site. 'As for nuclear energy as being our answer to whatever Eskom thinks it will be, that's not entirely true. If Eskom is concerned with electricity security, energy security and safe electricity supply, nuclear is not going to be able to provide that,' the report quotes Ferial Adams of Greenpeace Africa as saying. 'If you look at Finland and France which is the model SA wants to use, there've been so many delays. Each delay costs them about a billion euros a year. So in terms of a safe energy supply, by the time we get nuclear it won't be the right thing. Given the time constraints, it just makes sense to then now (to) invest in renewable energy,' said Adams. Muna Lakhani, Cape Town branch co-ordinator for Earthlife Africa, is quoted in the report as saying: 'The fact of the matter is that nuclear power is neither cheap, nor quick, nor safe. Even if nuclear one was approved tomorrow, it would take about 12 years before it came online, so it would hardly be relevant to the so-called current electricity crisis.' Full report on the News24 site