Page 15 - Bid Window News Today

South Africa has picked five solar sites for Bid Window 6 and signed PPAs for a number of Bid Window 5 plans, but progress remains slow.

Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe says the continuous power cuts by Eskom have the potential to overthrow the state.

Eskom, by not attending to load shedding, is agitating for the overthrow of the state,’ Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe said as his department signed purchase agreements with independent power producers, securing 1,759MW of energy into the grid in the near future.

Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe this week will sign project agreements with 13 preferred bidders from round five of the renewable energy procurement programme.

If we take solar generation to a higher level, for example, commercial and residential rooftops, there is a massive amount of real estate we can leverage. This can be used for embedded generation as well as be fed back into the national grid.

South Africa’s power crisis is no secret, and this, coupled with global commitment to transition toward net zero, and the case for the transition to renewable energy, is clear.

South Africa’s long-term zero-emissions goals have been considerably bolstered by the recent financial close of the first Renewable Independent Power Producer Programme (REIPPP) Bid Window 5 deals.

The projects valued at R7.7 billion and with a capacity of 280MW are expected to be constructed and online before November 2024.


Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe insists that coal will continue to play a critical part in electricity generation in South Africa.

Axel van Trotsenburg, managing director of operations at the World Bank, said that while the Komati Power Station repowering and repurposing project is a step in the right direction towards a just energy transition, it’s one that will need to be replicated extensively and rapidly in South Afric...