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President Cyril Ramaphosa has said the country needs R1.5 trillion ($81.3 billion) to successfully move from reliance on fossil fuels to renewable energy.
South Africa has so far secured $8.5 billion — mostly in the form of loans — from the United Kingdom, United States, Germany, France and the European Union for the country’s transition to a cleaner economy at the 2021 United Nations Conference of Parties (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland.
How will the R1.5 trillion be divided?
If the R1.5 trillion is received, the money will be sent to the treasury for distribution, primarily to Eskom, the department of trade, industry and competition and for developing the electric vehicle industry, over a five-year period.
Eskom will receive 70% of the funding — about R1.03 trillion.
About R648 billion will be needed for infrastructure — to decommission coal-fired power stations, expand and strengthen the transmission grid and bring online new renewable energy generation capacity.
The green hydrogen sector will receive 22% (R319 billion) of the funding. It will be for infrastructure and reducing emissions. The intention is to make the country a major exporter of green hydrogen.
The remaining R128 billion will be directed to developing electric vehicles. The sector is a major exporter and contributes to GDP.
Infrastructure investment of R319 billion will be used to strengthen municipalities’ participation in distribution networks.
Roughly R64 billion will be directed to just energy transition programmes, most in Mpumalanga, where the country’s coal value chain is concentrated. These would fall under Eskom.
(John McCann/M&G)Breakdown of the $8.5 billion
The investment plan elaborates that of the $8.5 billion, Eskom would receive $7.65 billion.
Of the $7.65 billion (about R140 billion), $6.9 billion (about R126 billion) will go to infrastructure required for decommissioning coal plants, electric cars manufacturing and green hydrogen.
About $0.7 billion (about R12.8 billion) will go to planning and implementation.
The skills development and re-skilling of Eskom employees will be allocated $0.012 billion (about R220 million.)
Economic diversification and innovation will get $0.022 billion (about R404 million).
Social investment and inclusion will get $0.016 billion (about R293 million).
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