Green outlook brightens after Zuma speech

South Africa’s main renewable energy industry body said it was confident the country’s renewable power programme would soon be back up to speed, after President Jacob Zuma showed support for the sector in his State of the Nation address.

State utility Eskom has been signing new contracts to buy renewable energy at a slower pace after power supply in the country stabilised last year, prompting an angry response from renewable energy producers that had won bids to supply the utility with power.

“Eskom will sign the outstanding power purchase agreements for renewable energy in line with the procured rounds,” Zuma told parliament on Thursday.

The South African Renewable Energy Council (Sarec) said the president’s statement was a clear sign of support for the renewable energy programme.

“We now look forward to the identification of PPA (power purchase agreement) signature dates, so that South Africa’s well-oiled independent power procurement programme process can continue, and so that construction of the next set of renewable power plants can begin,” Sarec’s chairperson, Brenda Martin, said.

Eskom spokesperson Khulu Phasiwe said the company was committed to renewables and that Zuma was reiterating what his company had been saying all along. “Eskom remains committed to renewables. We’re going to sign the new power purchase agreements for renewable energy at a scale and pace that we can afford.”