Solar and wind power are not the answer

Much nonsense is being spoken about Eskom’s decision to close down five coal power stations – some by Eskom itself. Three are very old stations that were shut-down in 1990 and then “returned to service” from 2005 when Eskom, through its failure to build new stations, ran out of capacity.

The fourth is Hendrina, a good solid station of 10 smallish units, started up in 1970. The fifth, Kriel, started up in 1976 and was the first of Eskom’s “six packs”, stations with six large identical units. These were wonderfully successful and gave Eskom the cheapest electricity in the world – and very reliable, too.

Eskom is talking nonsense when it says it is shutting them down because it is compelled to buy expensive wind and solar power under the state-enforced REIPPPP (renewable energy programme).

As you can see all around the world, wind and solar are so hopelessly unreliable that they will not stop a single coal station from shutting down.

Renewables are not only costing Eskom a fortune but are useless for delivering reliable power. However, it is impossible for the Eskom bosses to say so publicly; the greens are too powerful politically.

Maybe renewables will save some coal but even that is questionable since their violent fluctuations oblige other generators to run inefficiently to match them, so burning more fuel. Renewables force inefficiency onto the grid.

Coal truck drivers are protesting at the station shut-downs. Actually it is a disgrace that any coal is delivered to Eskom stations by road. It is expensive and very bad for the environment. The coal should all be delivered by conveyor belt from dedicated adjacent coal mines.

The fact that it isn’t reflects the mess Eskom made of its coal procurement, which lead to the disaster of January 2008 when many coal stations went down.

Eskom right now has a slight surplus of electricity, thanks to a stagnant economy and low growth (caused in part by lack of electricity in 2007).

With even modest economic growth, that surplus will quickly be wiped out, and we shall need a lot more reliable electricity, which wind and solar cannot provide.