Agricultural lobby body Agri SA has identified solar power generation as the answer to the country’s load shedding woes.
“There are already 500 applications for solar generation plants that have the potential to contribute 1 400 MW to relieve strain on the grid,” said Nicol Jansen, Agri SA chair of the Centre for Excellence: Economics and Trade. “If the administration processes are streamlined, these 500 applications and others can be rolled out.
“We are not asking for funding or even special treatment, just to speed up the process within Eskom and Nersa to process these applications,” he said, describing it as a ‘win-win’ opportunity for government and South Africa.
Small-scale solar photovoltaic (PV) installations presented an opportunity for farmers to generate electricity and relieve strain on the grid, he added. “Unfortunately, due to Eskom’s slow processing and administration of applications, as well as the slow implementation of electricity regulations and the bottleneck to register with Nersa, only 13 projects are currently connected and operational.
“If Eskom and Nersa could fast-track their processes, these applications (mostly from farmers) could generate 1 400 MW that could prevent stage 1 load-shedding. Furthermore, agriculture could more than double the 1 400 MW potential if commercial banks were willing to use solar plants as security to get access to capital. Currently, banks require additional security to finance these projects, which limits participation.”
He believes that by removing the regulatory and administrative constraints and by allowing solar installations to be used as security for funding projects, farmers could potentially with further expansion supply enough electricity to prevent stage 3 load shedding.
Agri SA will engage with the Minister of Public Enterprises, Pravin Gordhan, and the Minister of Energy, Jeff Radebe, to discuss proposals.
