South Africa has indicated that it is not ready to abandon its coal- fired power plant in favour of renewable energy anytime soon, thereby urging those who hold that view to be prepared to be disappointed.
The country’s Minister for Mineral Resources and Energy, Gwede Mantashe, declared the position of South Africa in an interview with Bloomberg and carried by Oilprice.com
“If you’re expecting that South Africa will make a quick shift away from coal-fired power in favour of green energy, be prepared to be disappointed.
“Expecting South Africa to quickly give up on coal-fired power would be “very wrong,” Mr. Mantashe said.
According to him, South Africa would continue to rely on coal and other fossil fuel-generated power, even as richer nations push the country towards greener forms of energy, because it is less intermittent than green energy.
“This belief that you can leave coal and move to renewables is very wrong; … it will never work,” he stated.
However, South Africa’s coal-fired power is not without problems. Its state-run electric company, Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd, is already struggling with electricity outages because the country’s coal-fired power stations are not all operating 24 hours a day like they could be. Breakdowns and extended impromptu maintenance have put a serious crimp in the country’s power generation; thanks to load-shedding for as much as 12 hours a day in some cases.
Nevertheless, coal-fired power will have a long life in South Africa, Mantashe has vowed.
He acknowledged the errors the country had made in its power industry, citing delays in building out new power plans and a critical design flaw in the current plants.
“That is one of those mistakes and we are learning from it,” Mantashe pointed out.
South Africa has been reluctant to jump onto the green energy transition train for quite some time, saying last October that the country had no plans to curtail its oil and gas operations in favour of green energy and even announced plans to boost its oil and gas exploration activity in the future as it tries to shore up energy security and reduce its energy imports.
Coal currently accounts for roughly 80 per cent of the country’s energy mix and is the world’s fifth-largest coal exporter.
Source: https://energynewsafrica.com
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