Date: 30/05/2011
Source: The Department of Energy
Title: SA: Peters: Address by the Minister of Energy, at the second regional conference on energy and nuclear power in Africa, Cape Town

Programme Director -
Prof Ogunlade Davidson, Minister of Energy & Water Resources, Sierra Leone
Mr Mohamed Mahamud, Assistant Minister of Energy, Kenya
Dr. Hussein Elhag, Executive Director, African Energy Commission
Dr. Erepamo Osaisai, Director General, Nigerian Atomic Energy Commission, Nigeria
Dr. Abd El Hamid Abbas El Desoky Ibrahim, Nuclear Power Plants Authority in Egypt
Prof. Shamsideen Elegba, Director General, Nigerian Nuclear Regulatory Authority
Adv. Boyce Mkhize, CEO of National Nuclear Regulator
Dr Rob Adam, CEO of Necsa
Mr. Ali Boussaha, Director, IAEA Division for Africa
Comrade Mr David Macatha, Treasurer General of NUM
Executives from the Energy and Nuclear Energy Industries
Representatives of Non-Governmental Organisations
Distinguished guests
Ladies and Gentlemen

Good Morning, Kusheh, Jambo and welcome to South Africa.
Five days ago we celebrated the 48th Anniversary of Afrika Day, reminding us of the power of a united front in dealing with the different challenges facing our continent. This continent is blessed with warm & friendly people, breath-taking landscapes and large quantities of natural resources, some barely exploited. The values espoused by the OAU and subsequently the AU guides the interactions amongst us as Africans and I plead for all of you to make those values the overriding theme and motive in all your endeavours every day. Together we can do more to facilitate socio-economic development of the peoples of Africa.

This event is the first regional meeting on nuclear energy following the accident at the Fukushima Daichii Nuclear Power Plant. The damage suffered by the reactors at this power plant was very unfortunate and our thoughts are with those working tirelessly to bring the reactors to cold shut down conditions. Equally, we continue to send our condolences for the lives lost during the earthquake and tsunami and hope that recovery efforts will soon bear fruit.

One of the reasons we are here today is because globally security of energy supply is becoming one of the key focus areas, mainly because of decreasing natural resources, global warming, climate change, pollution, and rapid global growth. We, as Africans, are not alone in this race to have a secure energy future. We are blessed with sufficient resources to cover our needs, even if we were consuming like the most advanced first world countries. However, most of our resources are exported to develop and grow other economies, countries, and continents, while we risk not having these resources or the more advanced technologies when we need them most – for our children and generations to come. Can we really have sustainable growth without security of energy resources or technology?

Due to lack of access to electricity for most of our population, and the lack of access to more advanced electricity generation technologies, we are faced with energy supply solutions that further lead to the demise our people’s health and the environment, both of which cannot continue indefinitely. One way of stopping this viscous cycle is through collaboration and sharing of solutions and experiences, which naturally leads to the next level of joint solutions in the form of regional projects. This, ladies and gentlemen, can only result in a more developed and competitive Africa. We have seen this in regional blocs such as the European Union countries joining forces to share strengths and mitigate weaknesses. As you are all aware, the African Union is just that platform. I hope that though your deliberations today and beyond, a way forward on collaboration on nuclear energy on the African continued can be formulated.

There are several electricity generation projects that are planned or under construction on the African continent for both coal fired power stations and hydro. Where possible we must pursue these in a collaborative manner maximise knowledge and resources for these projects. This approach may even ease our ability to raise funds for these projects and reduce the levels of financial assistance required from the international development finance organisations such as the World Bank and IMF.

Last month we approved South Africa’s Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) which will address the electricity generation mix for South Africa for the next 20 years. It is important to note that nuclear and renewable energy will have a significant contribution in the anticipated generation mix. This is a balanced plan that seeks to responsibly use energy sources available to us including gas, biomass, nuclear, coal and imports. In this plan we expect the following new generation capacity, 42% renewable energies, 23% nuclear and 15% coal by 2030. This is part of our contribution to mitigating climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions. It is also to ensure security of energy supply to the South African economy and households. As a country we pursue a balanced energy mix and for us the different energy sources are not seen to be competitive but rather they are supportive as none can exclusively meet the electricity needs of our country.

Multinational solutions in the form of an interconnected grid could be valuable in dealing with local supply constraints and utilising all available energy resources. Strategic alignment on the external supply of our non-renewable resources can create longer term beneficiation of these resources within the region, instead of outside.