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Cape Town - The incentive tariff of R1.25/kWh for electricity from
wind power will remain purely theoretical if nobody wants to buy the
power at that price, says Dr Eddie O'Connor, chief executive of
Main-stream Renewable Energy.
He says government and the National Energy Regulator of South Africa
still have to issue rules on exactly how the incentive tariffs will
work.
O'Connor says a study commissioned by Mainstream shows that South
Africa potentially has sufficient wind power to meet 70% of the
country's electricity needs.
But this will depend on whether Eskom grants power producers access to
its grid and whether the utility will buy electricity at the prices
required to cover wind farm developers' risks.
He says South Africa has favourable wind conditions because the wind
blows primarily in the daytime and at peak times.
Mainstream, an Irish company, entered into a partnership with the
local Genesis Eco-Energy enterprise with a view to developing wind
farms.
O'Connor says they are working on projects of up to 3 000MW. This
is the amount of power that a city like Cape Town requires.
Mainstream wants to build the wind farms and will consider selling
them to domestic pension funds, Eskom or municipalities.
Government's integrated resource plan provides for only 400MW of wind
power in terms of the import tariff model for renewable energy
announced last year. No purchase contract in terms of this programme
has yet been concluded with Eskom.
- Sake24.com
For more business news in Afrikaans, go to Sake24.com.