Wind energy is growing rapidly in South Africa and has helped to boost electricity generation during peak hours, the Department of Energy (DoE) has said.

“I am proud to report that, of wind energy’s overall contribution to electricity generation, 15% of this has come during peak hours over the last six months,” DoE renewable energy director Karen Breytenbach said on behalf of Energy Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson at the yearly WINDaba in Cape Town.

The Minister’s speech, read by Breytenbach, said this had debunked scepticism that renewable energy would not add much to the grid in terms of generation in South Africa’s most constrained peak-hour time.

Wind energy was seen as a powerful way forward in renewable energy in South Africa.
Wind energy contributed 3 357 MW, or 53%, of the overall 6 300 MW of renewable energy procured by the department to date.

Under the increased capacity of 13 225 MW in government’s Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP), 6 360 MW had been allocated to wind.

The DoE said one of the key drivers behind the success of the REIPPPP had been the price decline of wind across the four bidding windows.

Under the first bid window, the average price for wind was R1.41/kWh. By the fourth bid window, the average price had been slashed in half to 71c/kWh.

“We are now in a position to say we have some of the cheapest wind energy globally and it is cost-competitive with new-build fossil fuel plants,” the Minister’s speech read.

Communities, particularly those in the country’s windy areas, had also already benefited from socioeconomic developments as a result of the wind industry.

On the West Coast, wind energy producers had developed a home improvement project, spending R14-million on upgrading 600 reconstruction and development programme houses, while, in the Eastern Cape, a producer had spread its wealth and set up a mobile clinic, a library, a computer lab and donated furniture to a school.

Breytenbach said a quarter of the construction jobs on renewable-energy projects had come from the wind energy industry. Construction jobs had yielded 18 195 job years, of which 4 559 have come from the wind energy industry.

While manufacturing was increasing, particularly of towers for wind farms across the country, the DoE wanted to see more local manufacturing taking place.

South Africa’s renewable-energy projects have produced 5.46 TWh of electricity and displaced 5.54-million tons of carbon emissions so far. The Minister expected this to grow exponentially.

“Once the full capacity of renewable energy in the REIPPPP is procured and operational, we will see 45-million tons of carbon emissions displaced, annually offsetting 9.67% of national emissions reported in 2010. Under the full capacity of 13 225 MW in the Ministerial determination, we can offset about double our current displacement.”

Several hundred delegates gathered at the WINDaba in Cape Town to discuss the future of South Africa’s flourishing wind sector.