Should Eskom have pulled the plug on electricity supply from SA’s renewable energy programme? This programme had quietly but steadily been making significant progress. In the period from January to June 2015, 15 days of load-shedding was either prevented entirely or a higher stage of load-shedding was avoided by drawing on renewable energy. That was according to the results of a detailed study by the Council for Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR), which also found that in the same period, wind and solar projects saved the power system R3.6bn in diesel and coal fuel costs that would otherwise have been incurred.Last year the department of energy’s Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (IPPPP) reached the stage of being able to supply an additional 1,084MW of electricity to the national grid, with nearly 100 renewable energy projects. The CSIR study found the average tariff paid to the IPPs per unit of solar and wind energy was 71c/kWh, down from R3.40/kWh in November ...
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