Johannesburg - South Africa has the potential to become an exporter of wind turbines to generate electricity, says Darling Wind Power CEO Hermann Oelsner.
His firm produces electricity from wind power on a commercial basis - a first in SA.
Maintaining imported turbines are expensive, as "spare parts have to come from far away", Oelsner says.
"We have all the capabilities in this country to build turbines," he said.
SA Wind Energy Association spokesperson Mark Tanton says South Africa could pull this off: "We definitely can. We have the skills in a combination of industries, from building the turbines to the normal engineering. We also have the steel."
Local firms have to pay some €2.6m per imported 2MW turbine (the non-installed price).
If SA had to build its own turbines and maintain them, it would lead to job creation, economic growth and a new industry, which Oelsner believes has more benefits for the country.
"This country has the infrastructure to become one of the biggest exporters of turbines," said Oelsner.
Not everyone is fired up about the idea.
Pros and cons
Energy expert Andrew Kenney said that, internationally, wind farms used for bulk electricity have been a "complete failure".
"They are very expensive, unreliable, and they use resources inefficiently; many materials are needed to produce one KWh of electricity. Also, windfarms are built with gigantic subsidies."
Kenny said SA has to choose the cheapest energy technology that is best for the environment.
"With this in mind, wind for bulk energy - that is energy that goes into or connects to the national power grid - makes no sense at all. But when it's used on smaller applications, like a Karoo windmill that also pumps water, then it does make sense."
He believes that in SA, solar power is better than wind, as it's clean, safe and sustainable.
But he adds that - as with wind power - it would be very expensive connecting it to the grid. Small applications, he says, would work best.
"Like in rural schools, you can have a solar panel to produce small amounts of electricity which can make a huge difference to that school, as it will run all the lighting and the computers, which don't use a lot of electricity."
Geyser can make up 40% of electricity bill
As a result, Eskom wouldn't have to supply a big cable to supply that one school with electricity.
The best use for solar power is to heat water, said Kenny. "One geyser can make up about 40% of your electricity bill. If you have a solar panel, it could save most of that, and Eskom is already subsidising solar panels," he said.
In May 2008, Eskom started offering home owners rebates of 15% to 20% on the cost of installing solar water-heating systems - a saving ranging from R1 860 to R4 900 on the cost of a solar water-heating system. One installed systems can cost between R14 000 and R33 000.
Still, government has plans to connect renewable energy sources - like solar, hydro, wind and biomass - to the nation's power grid, and has even held public hearings discussing potential tariffs or subsidies it could pay to independent power producers that generate green energy, or clean energy.
The renewable energy "feed-in" tariffs are aimed at kickstarting the renewable energy industry in SA and connecting it to the grid. They tariffs are also meant to achieve targets set by government (as stated in a 2003 white paper on renewable energy) of 10 000GWh of energy to be produced from renewable energy sources by 2013.
To put the 10 000GWh 2013 target into perspective, this would be equivalent to electrifying approximately two million households having an annual electricity consumption of 5 000 kWh, according to the Department of Minerals and Energy.
"Put another way, the target is equivalent to about 5% of the present electricity generation in SA. This is equivalent to replacing two (2 x 660MW) units of Eskom's combined coal-fired power stations."
- Fin24.com