South Africa launches request for propositions for 1GW of solar PV

• The South African federal government has actually released its most current renewables procurement round under its Renewable Energy IPP Procurement Programme (REIPPPP), which is to obtain 1GW of solar PV.

Introduced today (19 March 2021), the tender represents Bid Window 5 of the nation's REIPPPP, which will permit bids to be sent by 4 August 2021. It plans to acquire 1.6 GW of wind in addition to the solar allocation.

Revealing the launch, energy minister Gwede Mantashe stated the goal is to get winning projects attached to the grid "immediately", provided the ongoing energy challenges South Africa is encountering. State utility Eskom has actually been executing power interruptions as a result of relentless break downs at coal-fired plants.

The bidding round is the initial stage of a procurement introduced last September for 11,813 MW of new generation capacity that will certainly originate from a range of resources by 2027. As part of that effort, the government will in the following one year release 4 more requests for proposals, which will consist of 2.6 GW of renewables, 513MW of battery storage, 3GW of gas capacity as well as 1.5 GW of coal.

Acknowledging that South Africa "has actually become accustomed to recurring electrical energy supply", Mantashe claimed his division's work is centred on guaranteeing the procurement programme moves forward to secure energy supply from a range of sources. It is likewise evaluating the licensing threshold for raised dispersed generation.

In his January state of the union address, South African Head of state Cyril Ramaphosa claimed that without capability enhancements, the country might encounter electricity supply shortage of in between 4GW and also 6GW over the following five years. He called for the procurement of power that can be brought online in the fastest feasible time as well as recommended steps to enable communities to create or purchase their very own power.

In a separate advancement today, shortlisted bidders for an emergency power procurement round have been announced. The 2GW Risk Mitigation IPP Procurement Programme (RMIPPPP) was released to the market in August 2020 to minimize the electrical energy supply constraints and to minimize making use of diesel-based peaking plants.

The process resulted in the option of eight preferred bids that will offer a total of 1,845 MW from innovations such as solar PV, wind, liquified gas and also battery storage. Power from the brand-new setups is expected to be connected to the grid from August 2022.

Amongst the favored bidders are Saudi Arabia's ACWA Power as well as South African renewable energy programmer Mulilo. Preferred prospective buyer status was additionally offered to the 128MW Oya Energy Hybrid Facility, which will certainly be created by Cape Town-based G7 Renewable Energies as well as colocate solar PV, wind and also lithium-Ion batteries.

Construction of the Oya plant is readied to begin by the end of the year near the community of Matjiesfontein, straddling the Western and also Northern Cape districts. "Oya can give some power on demand at a lower price than flexible gas projects and also almost without dangerous CO2 or other discharges, bringing us closer to our 2050 vision of powering South Africa's electrical power grid on 100% renewables," stated G7 founder Killian Hagemann.