Mabuyane welcomes new renewable energy investment

Eastern Cape premier Oscar Mabuyane has hailed a R3bn investment for renewable energy infrastructure announced by minerals & energy minister Gwede Mantashe on Thursday as a much-needed boost for the province.

Mabuyane was speaking shortly after Mantashe made the announcement on Thursday at the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme signing in Centurion.

He said: “We welcome the announcement by the minister of minerals & energy this morning, around the wind energy investment particularly in the Eastern Cape.

“As we all know the demand now supersedes the supply, as Eskom is battling and we are going through all the outages.

“The challenge of energy is breaking our momentum on economic recovery and reconstruction we have announced through the president.”

The project, the Coleskop Wind Farm, will be constructed in Inxuba Yethemba municipality, and will contribute a capacity of 140 Megawatts to the national grid.

The project is part of the bid window five of SA’S Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme. Mabuyane said the province had excellent wind and solar resources and considered sustainable energy to be a high growth sector under its economic development strategy. The premier’s office said it has “excellent wind and solar resources by international standards”.

“The province also considers sustainable energy to be a high growth sector under its economic development strategy, which informs support for works to develop enabling conditions for sustainable new energy projects.

“Under bid windows 1 to 4, one solar farm and 16 wind farms have already been constructed in the province, at an estimated investment value of R36.2bn. These facilities produce approximately 5.1-billion kilowatt hours of electricity per year, which is about 60% of the total annual provincial consumption.

“During the construction process, the wind and solar farms achieved 45% local content.

“Under the power purchase agreements for the sale of electricity on the national grid, wind and solar energy facilities make commitments in respect to enterprise development and socioeconomic development in their local communities.

“To date independent power producers in the province have spent R144m on enterprise development and R486m on socioeconomic development in their local communities.

“[Mantashe] confirmed plans by the national government to proceed with the much-anticipated development of a nuclear power station at Thyspunt in the province, a move which premier Mabuyane has welcomed.”

Mantashe said: “We can’t be open to a situation where, when there is disruption in Gauteng and KZN, then 50% of the GDP disappears.

“It can’t be. We must spread development to provinces ... we must develop Northern Cape and Eastern Cape, which are poorly developed.