EDITORIAL: Kubayi turns off energy future
Eskom has stalled the IPP programme, but it cannot halt the energy revolution
SA’s world-feted renewable energy independent power producer programme, which attracted investments of R201bn in five years, looks like it is over as we knew it. The programme was run as a competitive bid process, and over the four bid windows prices for renewable energy dropped dramatically, with wind power falling 55% and solar photovoltaic 76%. For bidders, which included the world’s big energy firms, the attraction lay in the certainty and comfort of investing in an environment in which there was a clear line of sight of the risks and the returns. Bloomberg ranked SA in the top 10 destinations for renewable energy investment. That all changed for good on Friday when Energy Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi kicked bid windows 3.5 and 4 – which have been in limbo for the past two years – even further into the future. While these bids will be signed by the end of October, they will not be commissioned until 2021. An additional round of bids — known as the expedited round, which included th...
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