Wind-generated energy “could and should” play an important role in South Africa’s energy economy and sustainable development, according to Minister of Minerals and Energy, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, with the first draft of the country’s Renewable Energy Strategy expected in February 2004.
Addressing participants at the World Wind Energy Conference and Renewable Energy Exhibition taking place this week in Cape Town, Mlambo-Ngcuka said wind energy had been a success story in recent years, proving to be the world’s fastest growing energy source.
South Africa had to begin to focus on renewable energy sources such as wind, given that it had one of the highest carbon dioxide emission levels per capita in the world.
In South Africa, the White Paper on Renewable Energy sets a target of 10 000 gigawatt hours (GWh) to be contributed from renewable energy sources to final energy consumption by 2013, to be produced mainly from biomass, wind, solar and small-scale hydro projects. This is approximately 4% of the country’s estimated electricity demand (41 539 megawatts) by 2013, equivalent to replacing two 660 MW units of Eskom’s combined coal-fired power stations.
In South Africa, current peak electricity demand is about 31 500 MW and national installed capacity is approximately 37 000 MW. Assuming a 10% reserve margin, South Africa will fall short of capacity by 2005-07, and it is this gap that the government is looking to fill partially with renewable sources of energy.
A key objective of the White Paper was to provide an enabling environment for investment, with an emphasis on local industry development, the Minister said. Several studies were currently underway to inform the Renewable Energy Strategy, with a macroeconomic analysis as its basis, and the first draft of this strategy was set to be finished by February 2004.
Mlambo-Ngcuka said South Africa had a “fair” wind resource, mostly spread along the coastal areas, with a theoretical capacity estimated at 3 000 MW, excluding offshore wind potential. Applications for wind-generated energy included windmills for pumping water, a well-established technology, as well as hybrid mini-grid systems and grid-connected wind farms to supplement the electricity grid through distributed generation.
Among the wind-related projects underway were Eskom’s experimental wind farm outside of Cape Town, the Darling national demonstration wind farm, and a large-scale South African Wind Energy Programme being undertaken by the government and funded by the United Nations’ Global Environmental Facility (UNGEF) with co-financing from Danida.
The Eskom wind farm, inaugurated in February, is a three-year research programme designed to study the optimal means of dispatching wind energy. It features three turbines with a combined capacity of 3,2 MW, each designed differently to allow for comparisons to determine the optimum configuration of the turbines for South African conditions.
Mlambo Ngcuka said that the turbines would be evaluated as part of the government’s renewable energy strategy and, if suitable, would largely be grid-connected and implemented along the Cape West and East coasts.
Also in the Western Cape, the Darling National Demonstration Wind Farm, with a capacity of 5,2 MW, was established as the first renewable energy independent power producer in the country in 2002. The National Electricity Regulator had already licensed the farm, and the City of Cape Town government had decided to purchase “green” electricity from the farm from 2004.
Meanwhile, as part of the government’s larger scale wind energy programme, work was underway by the Department of Minerals and Energy to identify and, to the extent possible, remove the barriers to large-scale commercial use of wind energy for on-grid power generation, the Minister said. As part of the project it was expected that two 5 MW wind farms would be planned and installed, reducing South Africa’s carbon dioxide emissions by approximately 650 000 tons over their lifetime of 25 years.
The proposed project would also, at a minimum, trigger wind energy development in the order of 100 MW within a timeframe of five years, the Minister said.
Another framework for the use of wind-generated energy is the hybrid mini-grid, according to Mlambo-Ngcuka. Areas remote from the national electricity grid with moderate wind provided ideal locations for the set-up of hybrid mini-grids.
The first such grid had been piloted at the Hluleka Nature Reserve on the East Coast, with an 8,1 kilowatt (KW) capacity. A second hybrid mini-grid with a capacity of 87 KW was being piloted at the Lucingweni community. These were serving households’ and small and medium businesses’ water supply and purification systems, the Minister concluded. – I-Net Bridge