Green energy is the only way to go, South Africa
Sustainable projects need to involve the people on the ground
THE sight of Gaza, my childhood neighbour, trying to light a petrol bomb under the dim lighting of Lansdowne road is troubling. What would drive a man to want to destroy the open cargo trucks that workers use to travel to the West Coast for work that windy morning?
You see, the West Coast district of the Cape has always been a part of my family stories’ playlist. Ma-Holo always shared stories of workers from a fish canning factory at Laaiplek and how the Nyanga Residents’ Association fought hard for good public transport to travel there, like the MyCiTi buses we have in Cape Town.
Laaiplek harbour was named after its function – a place where one can offload the catch of the day on the pier.
Today the West Coast has been energised by various energy technologies, from the Darling wind farm project to the IDZ project of Operation Phakisa. As a result, the oceans economy and Laaiplek harbour is now getting a facelift from the Coega initiative.
All these projects are the new sources of employment in this region. These deep ports of the southern hemisphere have always delivered food for our people and it is vital that we scientifically and innovatively increase their value to deliver more, in a sustainable manner for generations to come.
Last week Energy Minister Jeff Radebe announced plans for an additional 1 800MW renewable power project amounting to billions of rands. The evidence that renewable energy is the future we all have to embrace is well recorded in the numbers. The last Independent Power Producers’ Procurement Programme secured about $10.8 billion into the energy sector. Simply remarkable… do it again, uncle Jeff!
It is, however, hard to understand why the posture of these rural projects is so far removed from workers and the narrative is still not people-centric. The debate is dominated by old boys with “environmentally clean energy toys”, bragging about my toy is better than yours!
Why are the trade unions and their investment arms still folded? Southern Africa needs more than one energy technology to secure and grow its economy, as well as satisfy its energy needs beyond a 5% growth projection of the NDP. In fact, once we transform the energy question, 70% of the sustainable development goals could be resolved sooner.
The absence of the workers as a legitimate stakeholder in embracing this future holds the beneficiation programme dream frozen and without clean coal. I’m certain that the people of Emalahleni who benefit from coal and the factories of the Cape who benefit from nuclear energy all appreciate reliable low-cost energy, regardless of the technology source.
If we were to follow the people-led successful growth and the penetration of mobile phone analogy in SADC, today we all have the freedom to choose the device and the service providers, why can’t we have the freedom and the power to choose our energy sources? This is the question I posed to Dr Roderic Crompton, the director of the Energy Leadership Centre at Wits.
“The transformation of the energy sector has thus far resulted that the upmarket housing estates in Johannesburg have an option to have solar PV for lighting, solar water heating and pipeline delivered LPG for cooking,” was a part of his response.
This is what is possible going forward. Other electricity markets like in the US and other countries are already enjoying the benefits of an electricity demand-side-led transformation, he empowered me.
I wish Gaza and others can understand that the prosperous future lies not in the destruction of the energy infrastructure we do have. The structural transformation of this economy can only be realised through collaboration of all technologies to achieve economic efficiency that delivers an inclusive macro-economic growth.
This can still be achieved within the parameters of respecting the country’s commitment to global climate considerations and the CO2 mitigation strategies.
And to achieve this, the workers and the people of South Africa have to be more than the centre of the narrative; they ought to own the next IPP programme.
The new IPP programme that Minister Radebe will be offloading on a pier later this year is the next catch of the day.