De Lille talks tough on renewable energy

Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille has threatened legal action if the city is not allowed to buy renewable energy.

Cape Town - Mayor Patricia de Lille said the City of Cape Town will take legal action should they not receive the go-ahead from national government to buy renewable energy from Independent Power Producers (IPPs) - a move she says will mean cheaper electricity for consumers in the long run.

She said she had been shocked to hear Eskom was no longer interested in procuring renewable energy from the successful bidders, which had come through the government's Renewable Energy Independent Power Producers Programme.

Eskom chief executive Brian Molefe was recently quoted as saying the country needed nuclear power and that Eskom was looking to discontinue the programme to procure renewable energy from IPPs because it was impractical.

But Molefe's statement was contradicted by Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan, who said the IPPs programme was still a key state policy, a move welcomed on Friday by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).

Saliem Fakir, head of WWF-SA's Policy and Futures Unit, said Eskom's complaints that renewables were too costly was contrary to the evidence of the IPP bidding process which showed costs had come down with each new bid.

"Eskom's argument for nuclear is wholly optimistic given that it cannot build cost-effective new coal plants. It is unlikely to do so with more complex nuclear power plants which have higher safety requirements if it cannot prove itself prudent with coal."

Fakir said the public needed greater transparency around the costs of all forms of power generation - coal, nuclear or renewables - because it was unclear whether the benefits of cheaper electricity would be passed on to consumers.

Environmentalists and business have meanwhile thrown their weight behind De Lille's demand that the city be allowed to buy renewable energy from IPPs.

De Lille said the city would consider legal action if they did not receive the go ahead from Minister of Energy, Tina Joemat-Pettersson, who had ignored two letters requesting the city be allowed to procure 150 MW solar energy and 280 MW of wind energy from IPPs.

De Lille said being allowed to purchase renewable energy could reduce the long-term electricity costs for residents and provide a greater measure of protection against energy insecurity and Eskom's load shedding.

Janine Myburgh, president of the Cape Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said: "The simple fact of the matter is that the electricity from the new power stations will cost between R1.05 to R1.20 a unit, while electricity for PV solar and wind will cost between 60 and 80 cents a unit. It is irrational to deny cities the right to buy clean energy at nearly half the price of power from dirty coal-fired power stations," she said.

Patrick Dowling of the Wildlife and Environment Society of SA said South Africa needed to wean itself off its heavy reliance on fossil fuels and move towards green power as its preferred choice. "Over the last eight years or so, IPPs have collectively added approximately 2000 megawatts to the grid (more than a Koeberg-sized power station) with a mixture of wind, concentrated solar, photovoltaic, biomass and landfill methane derived electricity."

Cape Argus

helen.bamford@inl.co.za