The mineral resources & energy department pared down the number of bidders in the latest round for the renewable energy procurement programme, a development that focused attention on the need to build more high-voltage power lines to carry wind, solar and other green energy over long distances.

Mineral resources & energy minister Gwede Mantashe, who had no kind words for Eskom at the signing ceremony, said only 860MW in projects — less than a fifth of what the department hoped to procure in bid window 6 — could be given the go-ahead “because there is no grid capacity to sign more on now”...

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