SA must build ‘positive cycle of demand’ to see benefit of investing in diverse energy sources

Forestry, fisheries and environmental affairs minister Barbara Creecy says beneficiation will have to be a central part of transitioning Mpumalanga’s energy system to renewable sources of energy.

Creecy spoke to delegates at the Investing in African Mining Indaba in Cape Town on Wednesday morning. The event took place as investors and the global economy deal with the detour Russia’s war in Ukraine triggered for the world’s commitment to renewable sources of energy.

In 2022, European countries scrambled to import coal after Russian President Vladimir Putin closed off gas supply to the region, causing the demand for, and price of, coal to rise.

Critics of the government’s plans for an energy transition towards renewables have raised concern about the effect on jobs in Mpumalanga, which has the highest number of coal power plants in the country.

Creecy said the government’s feasibility studies into the effect of the energy transition on Mpumalanga’s economy showed SA needed to create a “positive cycle of demand” so those who faced energy poverty saw the benefit of investing in diverse energy security.

“If we are going to create the kind and level of jobs we need to create in Mpumalanga, we are going to have to move away from extract-and-export as a model. If they say we have all these inputs into fuel cells, then we will have to start making it in SA,” said Creecy.

She said after 2022’s geopolitical events, the world understood the energy transition would become more complex. She said world governments could not look at fossil fuels and renewables as mutual exclusives for years to come.

“We are not talking about an either-or situation here. We need to do both. If we don’t have a secure power supply we will not meet our growth targets. If we fail to mitigate greenhouse gases, we risk damage to human health and social wellbeing and to food and water security,” Creecy said.

She said while it was likely that coal would remain a part of SA’s energy mix into the 2040s, easing reliance on nonrenewables would remain a priority.

Presidential Climate Commission executive director Crispian Olver said lifting the cap on embedded generation saw mining and other industrial corporates respond powerfully with 9GW of predominantly renewable power. He said that that was pivotal to the transition and to energy security.

“These are projects that are happening without the government guarantee you get during the procurement process. It’s going to address the immediate energy challenge, but in the long term it is going to sustainably address power security,” said Olver.

Creecy said the Collins Dictionary, which selects a word to define the year that was at the end of each year, chose “perma-crisis” as the word of the year 2022. She said she hoped the word of the year 2023 would be “action”.

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