PROPERTY & INVESTMENT
Are the
dark days over ?
RACING TO RENEWABLES
30 S U S T A I N A B I L I T Y
The renewable energy Industry in South Africa has been pushing for change for several years but , to date , their calls for a radical overhaul on how the public get their electricity supply have fallen on deaf ears .
Weeks of Stage 6 load shedding and a troubled Eskom have resulted in the government relenting to calls for change as the energy supply in the country becomes increasingly desperate .
It effectively means that , for the first time , the government is turning to the private sector to offer an answer to the country ’ s 14-year-old power crisis , planned power cuts ( load shedding ) and 6,000 megawatt ( MW ) electricity shortfall . It remains unclear how this will work , but the scheme may also include unspecified tax changes .
When asked what sparked these reforms , Jason du Plessis , General Manager of Magneto Renewable Energy , said : ‘ It ’ s down to basic supply and demand . In the short term , Eskom don ’ t have the capacity to supply the energy demand , and it is increasingly unlikely they will meet long-term demand .
In a tweet , President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that the government would be defining a new incentive scheme to help households and businesses access solar power .
‘ This is coupled with the fact that the cost to produce energy through renewable sources has reduced over the past three years to a point where it is cheaper than buying the same energy from Eskom . This gap will only get bigger in the coming years .’