South Africa’s green economy
Source：Taiwan Trade Center, Johannesburg
From：Taiwan Trade Center, Johannesburg
Update Time：2017/11/22
South Africa’s green economy is partly driven by the country’s utility-scale Renewable Energy Independent Power Production Procurement Programme (REIPPPP), and is leading the way in some areas. According to Moody’s, South Africa had the fastest growing green economy in the world in 2015.
However, globally renewable energy (RE) has gained momentum, with a significant rise in the uptake of various RE technologies such as solar photovoltaics (PV), wind energy, biogas and other biofuels, hydroelectricity, landfill gas, geothermal energy, and concentrated solar power (CSP).
The key drivers of this global shift are also what are powering and providing a great deal of momentum to the evolution of South Africa’s energy sector:
■ Government policy support and procurement programmes;
■ Sustainability and energy security concerns;
■ Cheaper renewable energy technologies; and conventional/ traditional electricity becoming more expensive.
Green energy capacity targets in South Africa
South Africa planned to install 3.7GW of renewable energy by 2020, including 1.8GW of wind power under its Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP), and it is already over halfway there.
Solar power is also doing very well. The programme has been successful in drawing investment into the sector, having attracted R193bn ($13.7bn) of private money so far. The total put South Africa in the top 10 countries for renewables investment in 2014. It has also been helped by the plunging prices of renewable energy over the same time.
Both wind and solar can now sell energy to the grid at prices below that of coal power, gradually changing the coal-intense mix. The 2020 target is therefore being revised up. It stands at 7GW now and is set to move higher when a new Integrated Energy Plan is published.
However, the new targets have not yet been finalised. South Africa has some way to go to reach its old 2030 target of 17.8GW4 which is estimated to account for 20% of its capacity in 2030. Following exponential recent growth in renewable capacity, the new 2030 target is expected to be significantly more ambitious.
New 2050 capacity is envisioned at around 50GW for solar, 25GW for wind and 1GW for biomass, out of a total of around 140GW (depending on the scenario used).
Market opportunities
Specifically solar PV and wind energy capacity are the dominant technologies and demonstrates significant market opportunity. This is presented in the Figures below, using historic procurement it is assumed that an average procurement per year is 670 MWp and 450 MWp for wind and solar PV respectively.