350Africa.org has welcomed National Energy Regulator’s (Nersa) rejection of Eskom’s price hikes.
Ferrial Adam, regional team leader, asked why people should have to pay more for the failures of Eskom and Government. She said, “The country has the installed generation capacity it needs, but we have been let down by Eskom’s inability to manage maintenance and the delays to Medupi and Kusile.”
She added that coal is failing South Africa, leaving Eskom scrambling to pay for fuel and passing the financial burden on to people who cannot pay. She feels that Government’s obsession with coal has put South Africa in this position and the fastest way out of this crisis is investment in solar and wind energy.
Adam explains further, “It means backing decentralised, community-owned local solar and wind power facilities and rolling out individual solar panels for houses. We can leap past the failures of coal and finally connect all South Africans but only by scaling up the renewable energy revolution.”
