Government’s plan blocking jobs
GOVERNMENT’S new draft Integrated Resource Plan could be standing in the way of thousands of construction jobs for Northern Cape communities.
Black-owned firm Emvelo has said that about 2 000 construction jobs could be guaranteed in the Northern Cape over a period of five to 10 years should it proceed to the next five planned stages of its 1 000 megawatt solar power station projects.
However, standing in the way of this is the government’s new draft Integrated Resource Plan (IRP), which does not envisage any further concentrated solar power (CSP) deployment until 2030, Emvelo’s founder, Pancho Ndebele, said.
This was shortly after the group’s recent completion of its R11 billion solar power station situated 30 kilometres east of Upington in the Northern Cape, which is now contributing to Eskom’s massively constrained power grid.
The power station is the first of 92 large-scale renewable energy projects in South Africa to be initiated by the Emvelo group, a wholly (100 percent) black-owned company, which has also led the project’s development and played a role in the construction and day-to-day management through all its stages.
Ilanga CSP1 has the capacity to light up about 100 000 households and is capable of supplying electricity not only when the sun in shining, but is designed to store energy during the day and deliver power during the night-time peak period when the national grid is under strain, forcing Eskom to resort to its current round of load-shedding.
Ndebele said at the peak of construction during the first project about 1 800 jobs were created for communities in the Northern Cape.
“If you look at that environment, most of the people have low skills, but we were able to bring people up to a certain skill level during construction.
“Effectively, if you were to continue with the second or third project you are actually retaining work opportunities for people in those communities, so that it does not stop but continues.
“So, in a nutshell, if we were to allow our second project to happen, you are actually putting yourself in a position to ensure that another 1 800 construction jobs would be created over a three-year period. If you are looking at more phases you are able to give those families of all those phases, of let’s say between five and 10 years, you’d be able to guarantee families between 1 500 and 1 800 jobs over during that period,” Ndebele said.
He added that, from a construction point of view, between 1 500 and 2 000 jobs could be created and, in terms of permanent jobs for the running of each solar power plant, around 80 to a hundred jobs could be created.
“If I have a 100MW power plant, that plant would give me 80 to a hundred permanent jobs. If I then establish the second and third one, it will also give me another 80 to a hundred jobs, and if we talk about 550MW we need to build in the future, that can easily create between
400 and 500 permanent maintenance jobs directly or indirectly,” Ndebele said.
He added that the group was immensely proud of the achievement.
“Commercial operation of Ilanga CSP1 brings to 400MW the total capacity of CSP that has been installed by private developers in the Northern Cape under the government’s Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP).
“A further 100MW of capacity is under construction by another developer, which aims to supply electricity to Eskom in the first quarter of next year, while yet another developer is awaiting financial closure of an additional 100MW of CSP capacity,” he stated, adding that Emvelo’s ambitions extended well beyond the Ilanga CSP1 project and the new 100MW power station was the first phase of its planned 1 000 MW Karoshoek Solar Valley Park.
“Four other projects, with a combined capacity of 550MW are at ‘shovel-ready’ stage. Renewable energy developers have been urging changes to the draft IRP during the public participation process, and we can only hope that the government takes their views into account in finalising the IRP.
“Emvelo has been pioneering CSP deployment since 2009, before the REIPPPP was introduced. We have built up the knowledge base required to grow the CSP sector and to position the Northern Cape as the global hub for the deployment and industrialisation of CSP components. It would be a major blow if we, and other CSP players, were to be stopped in our tracks at this stage,” Ndebele concluded.