A case for renewable energy: Wind, solar power prevent energy crisis in SA

Despite some people’s worries over renewable energy taking over from coal, if it were not for independent power producers producing renewable energy, the lights would be off far more often and for longer.

In an effort to keep the lights on, Eskom is burning diesel at a prodigious rate, having spent more than R3 billion of the budgeted R19.6 billion by May.

Last Saturday, it had 14 open-cycle gas turbines (diesel generators) emptying taxpayers’ pockets at a cost of R4 700/ megawatt-hour (according to Eskom’s 2022 results), while on Sunday, 11 generators were used to keep load shedding levels down.

Sunday’s renewable energy generation of 356MW came from wind – 216MW, concentrated solar power – 138MW and photovoltaic power – two megawatts.

Last Saturday, solar generated 136MW while wind power supplied 591MW.

Last week, Eskom was allowed to resume electricity production at its Kusile plant, minus the filters which remove harmful sulphur dioxide emissions, potentially putting people’s lives in danger with dirty air.

OPINION: It’s time to cut losses on Kusile chaos

Without renewable energy, South Africa would be in a much worse position.

One of the many projects chugging away quietly – literally – in the background, is the Longyuan SA Renewable (Lsar) project in De Aar, built at a cost of R5 billion.

A subsidiary of the China Longyuan Power Group Corporation Limited (Longyuan Power) which is affiliated to the China Energy Investment Corporation (China Energy), Lsar has contributed a cumulative power generation of 243 million kilowatt-hours since it came online in 2017.

Made up of two wind farms in De Aar, Lsar has a combined 244.5MW of installed wind power. In an example of what can be done by a resolute government, by the end of 2022 China’s installed power generation capacity was 2 564.05 gigawatts, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics of China.

As of December 2022, Longyuan Power’s installed capacity of more than 31GW included 26 191.8MW of wind power, 1 875MW of thermal power and 3 041MW of photovoltaic and other power.

It is the largest wind power producer in China, which had 365GW of wind power capacity and 392GW of solar capacity by the end of last year, about a third of the world’s total, Reuters reported last week.

Last Sunday, Minister of Electricity Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa said Eskom’s current available capacity was beginning to level out at about 29 913MW, up from last week’s 28 664MW, or 28.664GW.

Recently, a group of South African journalists had the opportunity to visit Longyuan Power headquarters in Beijing.

There, an approximately 30 metre-long wall about 15m high covered in LED panels dominates the data centre where a handful of operators can keep an eye on the organisation’s interests.

At the click of a mouse, operators can bring up the history of an individual windmill to see its maintenance records and power output, which can be monitored in real time.

Live video feeds ensure operators can see if data matches the visuals sent to them and if there is a mismatch, problems can be identified almost immediately to protect sensitive equipment.

South Africa’s latest innovation was a pilot project for load limiting so consumers on smart meters can have a little electricity, up to 10 amps, during load shedding.

Longyuan Power has plans for further investment in renewable energy in South Africa.

A 2016 study titled Wind and Solar PV Resource Aggregation Study for South Africa found that “wind resource potential is as good as the solar resource”.

“Almost the entire country has sufficient resources with potential for very high load factors and, thus, profitable wind projects. It is possible to generate significantly more electricity from wind and solar PV energy than what is needed by the country even when considering spatial exclusion zones,” the study revealed.

“[More] than 80% of South Africa’s land mass has enough wind resources for low-cost wind energy. Furthermore, South Africa is a large country with a low population density and much space.

“South Africa has perfect conditions to introduce a very large amount of variable renewables into the electricity system in a cost-effective way.”