Minister of Mineral and Energy Resources, Gwede Mantashe addresses the delegates at the Africa Oil Week at the Cape Town International Convention Centre on 4 October 2022. Picture: Gallo Images/Brenton Geach
Mineral Resources and Energy Minister, Gwede Mantashe has insisted yet again that the energy crisis is not a “South African phenomenon”.
Mantashe delivered a keynote address at the 2022 Windaba energy conference in Cape Town on Wednesday.
Addressing delegates, the minister called on the public to give renewable energy projects time to generate energy and contribute to the country’s grid.
“When people want to take a dig on me, they say, ‘ja, we need more renewables and there will be no load shedding‘.
“I’m not an engineer and I don’t want to pretend to be one, but I always tell them my experience is that when you deal with renewables, you give the contract [and] you have an agreement with them. You must give them time to build the plant to generate energy.
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“So, if you give a permit for any renewable project to come onto the stream, don’t expect them to resolve load shedding this weekend. They will build it, 12 months, 18 months, and then generate that energy. That is my experience. You can correct me if I’m wrong,” he said.
The minister said in order to deal with load shedding in the short-term, South Africa needs to address Eskom’s shortfall in generation capacity.
“One of the proponents is that if you want to deal with load shedding, the main task is to ensure that the gap between 26 000 megawatts and 58 000 megawatts at Eskom must be serviced and give us energy then we will deal with load shedding in the immediate. And then build renewables so we want security in the long-term,” he continued.
Mantashe maintained his stance that South Africa was not the only country across the globe facing energy challenges.
“It’s not a South Africa phenomenon [and] when I said that everybody run all over me [saying] ‘ja I’m in denial’. I’m not in denial there’s a crisis all over the world,” the minister said.
He further said the energy transition towards zero carbon emissions should use all natural resources such as sun and nuclear, adding that wind energy is one of the cheapest clean energy sources for new electricity.
READ MORE: Mantashe comparing SA, Europe’s energy crises is misleading, ‘absolute nonsense’
“Our energy transition approach towards a low carbon emitting system or net-zero should not be driven by technology preferences, but by energy system requirements and innovative use of indigenous resources which include the sun, wind, nuclear, water, coal, oil and gas,” Mantashe said.
“Wind energy projects have contributed electricity generation during morning and evening peak demand here in South Africa.
“As of the end of March, 32 wind projects have reached commercial operation, delivering over 3 000 megawatts. That is the contribution of wind energy,” the minister continued.
South Africa has been experiencing rolling blackouts due to load shedding over the past few weeks.
The country is currently on stage 2 load shedding and is set to be reduced to stage 1 on Friday.
According to Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan, the blackouts would continue for another 9 to 12 months.
Last month, Eskom launched three power purchase programmes that will see it procuring 1 000 megawatts (MW) of power for the national grid on an expedited basis.
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