Renewable energy saving SA billions – CSIR

Melanie Gosling

Environment Writer

THE local renewable energy sector contributed R4 billion worth of benefits to the country in the first half of this year, according to a study by the CSIR.

The sector also saved South Africa 1.4 million tons of carbon emissions over the past six months.

South Africa is among the world’s highest carbon emitters in relation to GDP.

Tobias Bischof-Niemz, head of the CSIR’s energy centre, said the study showed the trend, that had begun in 2014, had speeded up and that renewable energy was providing “a huge net financial benefit to the country”.

The study released this week comes after an earlier CSIR study which found that the renewable energy sector had contributed R5.6bn worth of benefits to South Africa during 2014 – the first year that wind and solar power plants fed electricity into the national grid.

The CSIR said the first benefit of renewable energy was the savings from the coal and diesel that would otherwise have been used by Eskom. This was R3.6bn.

Because of the energy crisis, Eskom has to use diesel to power the open gas turbines to meet electricity demand, particularly at peak hours.

“At any given point there is a demand for electricity. Obviously you want to run the diesel only if necessary, because it is very expensive.

“If you took renewable energy away, the diesel turbines would have to be run hard. So wind and energy have saved those costs.”

Bischof-Niemz said the findings were conservative and actual costs savings were probably higher.

Johan van den Berg, chief executive of the SA Wind Energy Association, said the association was “extremely pleased” to see renewable energy was continuing to save South Africa money.

“The projections show that this will probably continue for the next five years because Eskom’s electricity will be constrained for that long.”

melanie.gosling@inl.co.za