Eskom’s green burden
As if Eskom did not have enough problems with its own corruption and stupidity, it is now forced to carry the burden of extremely expensive and unwanted “green energy” (meaning wind and solar).
Solar and wind are wonderful for off-grid electricity but hopeless for the grid. Worldwide, the more solar and wind you have, the more expensive your electricity. New technology does not stop this trend.
Eskom’s latest report for the six months ending September 2017, is revealing. It was compelled to buy “renewable” electricity for R2.05/ kWh (kilowatt-hour) when its own selling price was about R0.89/ kWh and its average production cost about R0.62/kWh.
This staggeringly expensive renewable energy is locked into 20-year purchase agreements, with prices rising with inflation. Eskom tries (not always successfully) to pass on the huge cost of renewables to its customers. The people of SA are asked to hand their money over to a few rich solar and wind power companies.
With one exception, renewable energy is so unreliable it has little, if any value. Solar PV (photovoltaic, converting sunlight directly into electricity) is not available at the peak times of sunset and sunrise, or during the night. Wind has no value because it is so unpredictable. To turn such bad electricity into good electricity, Eskom pays.
So, while we are told the price of renewables is coming down, the cost of more renewables keeps going up. If solar PV panels were free, reliable PV electricity would still cost a fortune, far more than coal and more still than nuclear.
The only reliable renewable is solar CSP (concentrated solar power) with storage. This alone provides useful electricity. In the first rounds of the REIPPPP (the renewable programme), its price was about R2.80/kWh. In the latest round the price is about R1.80/ kWh off-peak and about R4.85 onpeak – the most expensive electricity in SA history.
Germany is changing from nuclear to renewables, and electricity prices are soaring. Denmark, with the world’s highest fraction of wind, has even higher prices. South Australia, changing from coal to renewables, has seen a huge increase in prices.
Now Lynne Brown, the minister of public enterprises, has ordered Eskom to buy even more useless, very expensive REIPPPP electricity. Has she gone mad?