Eskom plans to add 4 gigawatts of renewable power to the national grid

Eskom has launched a request for a proposal to lease land to add an estimated 4,000 MW of new renewable generation capacity to the national grid

On 8 April 2022, Eskom launched a request for a proposal to help reduce the energy shortage by focusing on renewable energy. The stated aim is to lease parcels of its land to independent power producers under certain conditions, as follows:

• The production capacity per project is capped at 100 MW to comply with current legislation.
• The number of years of the lease is 20 years or more.

Furthermore, according to André de Ruyter, Chief Executive of Eskom: “Investors will be able to enter into bilateral agreements with customers, on terms that they agree, while Eskom will provide the transmission infrastructure to evacuate the electricity.”

This is excellent news. The South African 2019 Energy Sector Report shows that coal accounts for about 69 per cent of the primary energy supply, followed by oil with about 14% and renewables with only 11 per cent.

According to Enerdata, this percentage of renewable energy increased to 16.1 per cent in 2020. Still, coal’s contribution has also increased over the same period to 83.5 per cent, partly because it is cheap and readily available.

Nonetheless, this initiative demonstrates Eskom’s commitment to addressing one of the most pressing needs of the South African economy and the climate change agenda, such as Sustainable Development Goal #7 and the Paris Agreement.

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