The South African Wind Energy Association (SAWEA) has sounded alarm bells in Parliament, revealing that the nation's wind energy sector is effectively sidelined due to a lack of grid access.
During a session with the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Electricity and Energy yesterday, SAWEA CEO Nishen Govender implored lawmakers to address challenges obstructing the transition to a greener energy future.
“Grid capacity, grid access, grid allocation remains the most important challenge. Simply put, it means with no with no transmission, we cannot transition,” Govender said.
“We cannot build new generation capacity with no grid to connect. So the dialogue around infrastructure development and grid management to maximum renewable energy potential becomes extremely important and existential in energy transition.”
He said though South Africa has a great policy framework, there were alignment challenges that needed to be addressed, especially with new policy and reform in the regulatory environment as the uncertainty restricts planning.
“There were zero megawatts being procured because of grid constraints in the areas where we have gas wind and solar, another devastating blow to the industry,” Govender said.
“We are currently between construction and implementation and we are not confident that more than 50% of intended projects would be successful, again due to grid constraints.”
In 2021, Bid Window 5 was launched attracting 1.6GW of wind energy.
Govender said 50% of these projects are under construction and the other 50% are facing challenges of an oppressed domestic market with global supply chains.
He outlined that in 2022, Bid Window 6 had 4.1GW of wind energy bids, with none being procured due to constraints.
“Important to note is that there have been no new wind energy procured almost 4 years through the public procurement,” Govender said
He said the results of a survey on the energy pipeline and development this year conducted with the SA Photovoltaic Industry Association (SAPVIA), Eskom and the National Transmission Company of South Africa (NTCSA) to understand the development of the energy pipeline in the country, showed there were 133GW of global energy projects at different stages of development, 53GW attributed to wind energy alone, which depicted where these projects were planned and what format to expect them to come on.
He said more than 33GW of wind energy projects alone could be built in the short term, meaning over the next 3 to 5 years, if there was good capacity and the right market conditions.
“As we focus on projects currently under construction for the private market, the industry grapples with logistical challenges. Currently is the need for more security escorts and transport requirements to get our components to site,” Govender said.
“There is a real need to build capacity in this area to ensure future sustainability.”
SAPVIA CEO Rethabile Melamu said the solar industry was constrained by the abrupt introduction of import duties and lack of rebates on imported equipment, which the sector expected to assemble locally.
Molamu said the immediate introduction of import duties on modules and access of the rebate underscored that engagement on the actual introduction of the duty was not consulted sufficiently in its implementation, adding that the abrupt nature in its implementation meant that most members consignments were stuck in the water for a long time.
“There was no rebate process in place and there is still not rebate process in place since the immediate implementation of the duty in July 2024,” she said.
“We understand from very constructive engagement that we have with ITAC that they will continue to provide permitting per consignment, which is not ideal and which delays the projects for our members. That’s one of the key challenges we are facing as an association.”
Melamu said the local assembly, which is not manufacturing in a sense but really importing the same components from China and then putting them together, has at least 10% of the demand.
She said maybe how this was introduced and how the rebates were administered has been a bit problematic.
She also noted that there had been a slow down in the residential market due to the suspension of load shedding.
“This slowdown ranges anything between 60% to 80% in just these two years, 2023 and 2024. Some of the challenges are low compliance and registration rates.
“If you have a solar system, you have to register this system with the local municipality but the registration levels are low. We have concerns with the quality of the installations. We have interventions but we are a voluntary body and there is a lot in the industry we do not have control over.”
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