CLARITY FOR ENERGY SECTOR

President Cyril Ramaphosa’s State of the Nation address has brought muchappreciated investor clarity to the country’s energy sector, says South African Wind Energy Association (Sawea) chief executive Brenda Martin. The sector was still recovering from an extended procurement hiatus, which was finally ended by the president shortly after taking office last year. “In his address, the president has provided clarity on two issues of major concern to the SA energy sector: a firm commitment to investment growth in clean energy and that of Eskom, paving the way for necessary fair market access job creation and GDP (gross domestic product) growth,” she said. According to Ramaphosa, the government would immediately embark on a process of establishing three separate entities at Eskom. Martin said that the move would open the way for the procurement of new renewable energy underpinned by policy certainty. Renewable energy has, to date, invested close to R202 billion (24 percent of which is foreign direct investment) in the South African economy. It has contributed 26 840 gigawatt hours to the national grid and created about 36 500 jobs – with the potential to create many more, continued Martin. Other benefits include R640.3 million invested into socioeconomic development contributions to communities and R204.6m invested in local enterprise development. On the environmental front, 27.2MtCO2e energy-related carbon was avoided and 32.2Mkl energy-related water-use has been avoided. “We are reassured that government appears to have recognised this strong performance from renewables and chosen a policy path that seeks to optimise their investment potential – specifically with regards to job creation and GDP growth,” said Tebogo Movundlela, the chairperson of Sawea. Through smoothed allocation of 1.5GW of wind per annum between the years 2021 and 2030, the country can expect a total GDP impact by the wind industry alone of R200bn by 2030 along with the realisation of over 70 000 jobs (from construction, operations and maintenance). | Staff Reporter