Eskom says South Africa requires 53GW of clean energy capacity in the next ten years to keep the lights on and avoid load shedding, as old coal power stations close down.
Eskom noted its plans in October this year at its Transmission Development Plan (TDP) 2022 to 2031.
If clean energy is what the country is going for, to reach the amount of clean energy required from the sun and the wind, SA would need to build 166 million photovoltaic (PV) panels at the speed of light within the next decade. That’s if we can keep those machines switched on.
Eskom has a plan
Eskom’s updated TDP 2022 is projecting a requirement of up to 53GW of renewable energy over the next 10 years pic.twitter.com/pw0lSEzJWH
— Eskom Hld SOC Ltd (@Eskom_SA) October 28, 2022
“Considering that major transmission projects take between seven and 10 years – and often longer – to complete because of the complexity of obtaining servitude rights over the long distances associated with transmission lines, the grid strengthening projects that we initiate today are likely to be completed only between 2027 and 2032, unless we collectively take extraordinary measures to expedite the roll-out of the grid,” notes Eskom in the TDP 2022 to 2031 document.
The ‘often longer’ could be a clue on whether this will be possible or not.
Read More: Eskom needs to add 53GW of energy to the grid before 2032 – or else
This is as load shedding continues to plague the country, mostly due to the breakdown of coal-fired power stations.
So far, the country has managed to only get 6.1 GW of green energy from independent producers since 2011 when government started its programme to go ‘green’.
The calculations, according to Tech Central, are based on a solar technology estimate from the US Department of Energy.
Read More: How EskomSePush became SAs most useful app
South Africa has been plagued by load shedding since 2007. According to the popular app EskomSePush, the country has had more than 1,949 hours of load shedding – that’s more than 81 days of darkness so far. Combine that with power outages at random times and a hundred days of darkness is highly possible.
In its TDP 2022 to 2031 document, Eskom lists its generation assumptions based on the official IRP report of 2019 that was approved in 2019 by parliament.
Source: Tech Central