Green Options

For the first time the South African government has put in place realistic support that will begin the investment needed to reach our goal of sourcing 2% of our energy needs from renewable energy by 2013.

What Is the Challenge

In 2003 the Government set a target of 10,000 GWh of energy to be produced from renewable energy sources by 2013. At that time the strategy expected the energies to be biomass, wind, solar and small-scale hydro.

Very little progress has been made on reaching this goal although six of the 10 years have already passed.

At the peak of the rolling blackouts in South Africa, one of the indirect consequences was an enormous snarl up in traffic flow as robots (traffic lights) went down. This significantly increased energy consumption and wasted productive time.

Yes we do call traffic lights robots in South Africa, presumably because its “A machine or device that operates automatically or by remote control”. The Department of Transport’s magazine was titled Robot until 1998 but they now seem to use Traffic Light in formal documentation.

The Central Energy Fund (CEF) of South Africa has announced a drive to install solar-powered traffic lights at critical intersections in South Africa’s major cities. The CEF foresaw an investment of R 100 million and installations at 400 intersections. This was justified by “Quantified in monetary terms, productivity losses, accidents at uncontrolled intersections, and exhaust emissions from stationary motor vehicles all have an adverse effect on the economy,”

A previous post, Rolling Blackouts to Benefit South Africa, hypothesised that the strong reaction to the rolling blackouts Eskom was forced to implement has resulted in urgent action which will in the medium term ensure South Africa has the energy systems it needs for its long term development.

In 2004 the three major users of electricity in South Africa were Industry (64.6%), Residential (17.4%) and Commerce (12.0%). It was therefore logical that once Eskom, with the “urging” of Government, faced the situation and took co-ordinated action it went to industry.

Discussions with industries and especially the large users in mining and manufacturing, were based on Eskom admitting that it was unable to guarantee supplies to industry, presenting a long term plan of action and requesting that industry manage itself to achieve an immediate 10% reduction in its consumption.

Industry supported the request although it lead to week long shut downs of a number of mines which were unable to immediately reduce their consumption without effecting the complete process.

This was termed Phase 1 of the National Emergency Response Plan and was mainly aimed at stabilising the system to avoid catastrophic shut downs that could result from instability induced by too small a margin between demand and supply.

The rolling blackouts in South Africa have roused the country and no doubt damaged the economy. But could they also be putting South Africa on a road to a more sustainable and environmentally acceptable energy infrastructure, which should support long term growth?

In the 1980’s, South Africa invested strongly in coal-fired power stations for cheap electricity. The very low energy cost made alternate energy too expensive. The excess generating capacity lead Eskom (the national, government-owned electricity generator) to focus heavily on promoting electricity as the energy of choice. Its apparently strong position with coal energy meant Eskom did not encourage off grid or alternate energy supplies.

Despite some focused opposition, South Africa has continued to invest in the PBMR project because it makes sense , and provides reliable electrical power to keep lifting the living standards of its population.