Government’s energy policy is a mess because it is top-down, favours the big over the small, all but ignores renewables and puts all its eggs in very few baskets, critics say.
They say the ”big is beautiful” strategy ignores the fact that individual households can meet their own energy needs while contributing to national needs.
They point to Botswana, which has been successfully using solar power across the country to help meet its energy needs.
The all-eggs-in-few-baskets approach makes the country susceptible to power outages and disruptions, which are playing havoc in the Western Cape.
In the residential sector, between 35% and 40% of electricity is used for heating water, says environmental group Earthlife Africa. It says the widespread residential use of solar heating would ease the peak capacity constraints the country faces at present.
Homeowners are, however, reluctant to invest in solar technology because electricity in South Africa is cheap.
A major study into the energy sector commissioned by EarthLife says that because energy in South Africa is so cheap, renewable energy projects are deemed expensive, but this fails to take into account that prices are going to decrease rapidly as more investment in these technologies takes place.
South Africa is one of the world’s worst polluters, currently ranked 19th for annual greenhouse gas emissions by the World Resources Institute.
Minister of Public Enterprises Alec Erwin told the Mail & Guardian recently that incentives or subsidies for solar heating are ”highly unlikely”.
”It is very difficult to police situations like that and our general policy is not to provide a multiplicity of tax incentives,” said Erwin.
South Africa’s energy-intensive economy, which relies on low-cost electricity to power industries such as mining and metals processing, used 4 230 petajoules in 2003 and it is estimated that this could more than triple by 2050. (All of the resources used are expressed in their own specific physical units. These units are then all converted to petajoules in order to calculate total energy use.)
Earthlife Africa Johannesburg branch coordinator Richard Worthington says resources are being misallocated: ”We are spending vast amounts of money on the Pebble Bed Molecular Reactor [pictured below] when we still haven’t finalised its design.
”We should be investing that money in developing renewable energy alternatives.”
Worthington said, given that government is making extensive investments in the energy sector, now is the perfect time to investigate renewable projects.
Eskom has set up a research programme to collect data on the use of solar-powered water heaters in South Africa. Solar geysers will be installed in 50 households countrywide in March and will be monitored over a period of six months.
Solahart Southern Africa MD Jim Hickey said: ”Eskom was in denial for years, [but] they are now finally looking into solar energy.”
The Earthlife report, released last month, concludes that South Africa, as a matter of urgency, has to start investing in renewable energy sources because the current fossil-based strategy has huge economic and environmental costs. ”Fossil fuel scarcity and pricing as well as climate change concerns provide critical motivations for change.”
”The most polluting energy sources are highly subsidised while we are neglecting the abundance of renewable energy sources in this country.
”Instead, we have the pissy renewable energy target of 12% over 10 years,” said Worthington.
Senior researcher at the Energy Research Centre, Harold Winkler, says there is a need to invest more in renewable energy, but that government has made a firm commitment.
”Government has set a target for renewable energy. I think that if they meet that target, it will be a serious contribution,” said Winkler.
Winkler said renewables are still not cost competitive in comparison to coal and perhaps the reason for this is that the pollution costs of coal are not taken into account.
”The cost of solar heating can be made back in three to five years, after which the consumer will experience savings on their electricity bill,” said Worthington.
Three scenarios for South Africa
Business-as-usual scenario
South Africa continues with its current policy: renewable energy contribution reaches a maximum of 4%. There will be a huge increase in capacity of fossil-fuel plants: current plants will have to be replaced and supply almost double the capacity they are providing currently. This scenario would imply adding the equivalent of one of Eskom’s large stations every 30 months and this has very high economic and environmental costs.
Progressive scenario
Renewable energy plays a moderate role in electricity generation: 13% by 2020 and 70% in 2050. Various renewable resources will be used: solar energy will become economically viable on a large-scale basis; biomass will remain important; solar water heaters will become more important; and biofuels will serve as an additional contribution. South Africa has sufficient renewable resources to provide for the electricity demand.
Climate change scenario
There will be a net reduction of fossil fuel consumption by 2050. A large proportion of the current non-electrical energy such as transport will have to be met by electricity from renewable resources. Sources of renewable energy consist of the same ones as in the ”progressive” scenario, but will completely replace fossil fuels. For this scenario to become viable, investments in energy supply will have to be very large, strain on energy consumption through economic development must be reasonable and energy efficiency must be promoted at all levels of society.
Botswana leads the way
In the early 1990s, the Botswana government implemented a pilot project to assess the technical and economic performance of various renewable resources in a rural environment.
As part of the project, a number of public and private photovoltaic systems and solar water heaters were installed.
Evaluation showed that solar technology is highly socially acceptable, increases economic activity and even improves medical care. Since then, a number of projects have been set up.
In 1997, the national photovoltaic rural electrification programme was set up. It offered credit to those who wished to buy solar-powered lighting systems. More recently, the Botswana government has indicated 88 villages that will be offered photovoltaic power.
Kesetseneo Molosiwa, Botswana’s principal energy officer, explains: ”Every household in these villages gets a chance to buy photovoltaic systems, solar geysers and LPG [liquefied petroleum gas] tanks at an 80% subsidy.”
The aim is to reduce CO2 emissions by replacing fossil fuels such as petrol, wood fuel and coal by photovoltaic and LPG to improve people’s access to affordable energy.
In addition, the Botswana government has been actively encouraging the installation of solar water heaters on government buildings for many years.
Most schools, hospitals and municipal buildings in the country thus have solar geysers. ”We even put up 6 000 solar geysers in the Orapa and Jwaneng diamond mines,” says Jim Hickey, MD of Solahart Southern Africa, provider of solar water heaters.
”What they are trying to do in Botswana is lead by example and it works,” says Hickey. ”Drive around Gaborone and you will see solar geysers all over the roofs there.”
Compared to South Africa, Hickey says, Botswana is years ahead: ”Awareness of solar heating is simply much higher. In South Africa, even people who can easily afford it do not think of getting solar water heaters.” — Riekje Pelgrim