Eskom Can Put South African Solar Power On The Map
BUSINESS DAY - Last month, the Development Bank of Southern Africa, the World Wildlife Fund and the Centre for Renewable and Sustainable Energy Studies of Stellenbosch University participated in and hosted a workshop on concentrated solar power (CSP), a form of renewable power generation proven in the US and Spain.
It has huge potential in sun-rich Africa. Desertec is one such project planned for north Africa to supply renewable power to the European Union. CSP could provide up to 25% of total global electricity needs. It is cost competitive and can provide a base- load alternative to new coal or nuclear generation without rising fuel costs, carbon emissions or nuclear waste.
Industry expert Louis van Heerden explained at the meeting how CSP uses the sun’s rays to heat a fluid (normally water or molten salt) driving a steam turbine to create electricity. One form is a parabolic trough, or Fresnel mirror arrangement, that focuses solar radiation on a pipe carrying the fluid, with or without a glass vacuum.
CSP is one of the technologies subsidised under the National Energy Regulator of SA’s new renewable feed- in tariff. A similar tariff worked well in Germany and Spain. At a generous R2,10 per kWh of solar power produced, the tariff makes the sector attractive to new developers and investors, including Spanish-based Abengoa Solar and Google-funded eSolar, as well as local banks and entrepreneurs.
A major injection of private investment into CSP would assist the government in meeting its target of procuring 10000 GWhs of renewable energy by 2013. It would go a long way to diversifying the energy mix away from carbon-emitting fossil fuels, so that we can meet our climate change commitments, as laid out in the Cabinet-approved long-term mitigation scenarios.
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