Electricity and Energy Minister, Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, is determined to make South Africa “ultra aggressive” in onboarding renewable energy sources.
Ramakgopa was speaking on Monday during the Ministerial Renewable Energy Seminar held in Midrand.
The seminar was held under the theme “Advancing Renewable Energy: A Comprehensive Review of the IPP Procurement Process”.
He told the gathering that it is in the “collective interest” to accelerate the renewable energy programme.
“We must be ultra aggressive in the onboarding of renewables. It must be on steroids,” Ramakgopa said.
“But we can only achieve that if we resolve the issues that you are going to share with us today. I think the future is renewables.
“We must resolve the issues of permitting and licensing and the speed because capital has got choices. It’s not like capital is waiting for South Africa to resolve its problems.
“It is in our interest to ensure that we are greedy in how we want to consume this capital, and that greed will be displayed in the manner and the enthusiasm with which we are resolving the major impediments in this instance.
“We want to capture all these opportunities … for the greater good of the region.”
In order to build a strong renewable energy sector, “we must build confidence in the system”, the minister stressed.
“We are going to be a bit more aggressive in onboarding renewables but I think that statement is hollow if we are not able to address the attendant challenges and the inherent weaknesses in the system.
“We must build confidence in the system going into the future, firstly, by illustrating our ability to resolve the challenges that have afflicted the previous bid windows.
“[Being aggressive means] going out to procure the megawatts that are of a scale and proportion that we have not done before.
“But if we have not resolved the inherent challenges, that statement will be put to waste because we will not be able to achieve that which we desire.
“So it’s important that we have that conversation and I urge you [stakeholders] to be very candid,” he said.
He said his department wants to gather as much information as possible to improve on South Africa’s independent power producer procurement programme.
“We are here to listen to how best we can improve. Once we have listened, we will take action,” he said.
“We really want industry to thrive for us to make South Africa the preferred destination for this capital [and] for us to run the most ambitious and successful of all renewable programmes from a public procurement point of view.
“[We want] the best one, not just on the continent, not just in the global south, but something that is of envy across the globe.” – SAnews.gov.za
