South Africa expects more than 5 500 megawatts (MW) of additional renewable energy projects to come online by 2026, electricity minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa said on Tuesday.

He added that 66 000 MW of wind and solar projects were under development across the country.

South Africa is in the midst of its worst electricity crisis ever, with households and businesses facing hours of daily scheduled power cuts due to repeated breakdowns at state utility Eskom's ailing fleet of coal power stations.

But some analysts have started to turn more optimistic that the government will make progress in reducing the intensity of the power cuts, helping the rand currency recover from a record low touched on June 1.