Renewables: South Africa RE Generation to More Than Triple by 2030

South Africa’s share of non-hydro renewables for power generation will more than triple by 2030, according to a new report put out by GlobalData.

The latest report says that the country’s non-hydro renewables power generation will increase from 8.1% in 2017 to 30.3% in 2030. This is attributed to the government’s decision to restructure its energy output.

GlobalData’s latest report, ‘South Africa Power Market Outlook to 2030, Update 2018 – Market Trends, Regulations, and Competitive Landscape’ provides forecast numbers for the country’s power capacity, generation, and consumption up to 2030, and reveals that most of its current electricity supply is generated from coal-based capacity, accounting for 74.7% of the country’s total installed capacity. Chiradeep Chatterjee,

Power Industry Analyst at GlobalData, comments, ‘‘South Africa’s new Integrated Resource Plan 2018 (IRP 2018), has called for increasing the share of renewables and gas-based thermal power capacity in order to move away from coal and nuclear, but this will not be easy to achieve.’’ While the move away from coal will not be easy, it will be necessary as South Africa’s state-run utility Eskom as said that 75% of the country’s coal-based power plants will near their life by 2040. The government plans to retire and replace the coal plants with new gas-fired plants.

The government has also scrapped an earlier proposal to increase installed nuclear capacity, and is now calling for increasing the capacity share of wind and solar power instead. Chatterjee continued, ‘‘Non-hydro renewables including biopower, are therefore expected to contribute approximately 30% of the country’s installed capacity and around 20% of its annual power generation by 2030.”