South Africa aiming to reduce dependence on coal by 2030

Deputy minister for mineral resources and energy Nobuhle Nkabane said South Africa is aiming to reduce the country’s dependence on coal.

Nkabane was speaking at the Northern Cape Mining and Minerals Investment Conference in Kimberly on Thursday.

The conference has been be positioned as a business dialogue and investment promotion and exchange platform for the direct contact of stakeholders involved in mining with special emphasis on junior and emerging mining enterprises.

Nkabane said there is an “umbilical cord” between South Africa’s coal mining and energy.

“Currently our reliance on coal as a primary source of energy is at 75%. We have committed to progressively contribute our fair share as part of our approved Nationally Determined Contributions, and we aim to reduce coal consumption in power generation sector to below 60% by the year 2030.”

In his state of the nation address in February, President Cyril Ramaphosa indicated that South Africa “will continue to pursue an energy mix which includes renewables, battery and pump storage, gas as a transition enabler, nuclear at a pace at which the country can afford, as well as explore carbon capture and use technologies.”

Nkabane this is what is essentially entailed in the Integrated Resource Plan 2019 and agreed upon in the long-term government framework.

“Together with the rest of the world, we continue to explore technologies that can mitigate against carbon emissions, amongst which is Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage or CCUS. However, we insist that our country deserves energy security as provided from a baseload perspective by the current coal power stations and the Koeberg Nuclear Energy plant.”

Nkabane said like all other countries, South Africa cannot plunge itself into technology uncertainty and energy insecurity.

“In 2021, we amended Schedule Two of the Electricity Regulation Act (ERA) to enable embedded energy generation up to 100 megawatts without the need for a license.”

Nkabane said as an intensive electricity use industry, the mining sector stands to benefit from own generation in terms of cost and the ability to secure own supply.

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