The City of Cape Town aims to become the top renewable energy investment destination in South Africa.
This, as the city puts in place programmes to enable the diversification of energy for cleaner, cheaper sources and the growth of the green economy for meaningful economic growth.
Speaking at the Africa Renewables Investment Summit yesterday, at the Cape Town International Convention Centre, councillor Beverley van Reenen, the city’s mayoral committee member for energy, outlined key interventions the city is taking to end load-shedding over time.
It is also working to enhance energy supply security, diversify the energy mix through own build and third-party suppliers, and create an enabling environment for greater investment into renewables and cleaner sources of energy that will be to the benefit of Cape Town, noted Van Reenen.
Over the years, the city has been at the forefront in its bid to wean itself from struggling power utility Eskom.
The city fought for the right to buy cleaner energy directly from independent power producers to improve energy security.
“The city has a vision to become a climate-resilient, resource-efficient and carbon-neutral city that enables meaningful economic growth for inclusive job creation, especially in ultra-promising sectors of the future, such as the renewables sector,” said Van Reenen.
“The city aims to be a leader in renewable energy and alternative technology solutions through facilitation, promotion and helping to create an enabling environment for greater investment in this sector. South Africa is facing extraordinary energy challenges. So far this year, we have had a record of over 1 800 hours of rolling outages.”
Last week, the City of Cape Town announced its plans to build its first grid-connected solar plant next year, as one of its interventions to end load-shedding over time.
In a statement, the city said it has issued a tender for engineering, procurement and construction of its planned 7MW Atlantis solar photovoltaic plant.
The facility will be connected directly into the city’s electrical network. It is foreseen that the future could hold the construction of similar plants across the metro.
“While there has been progress with Eskom’s Just Energy Transition programme towards lower carbon technologies, it requires further investment and support for its targets to come to fruition,” Van Reenen added.
“As a city, we are taking the lead. Programmes to diversify and secure our energy needs have already started, including tender processes that are under way for independent power producers, the city’s own build programme, starting with a 7MW solar plant in Atlantis, and generation from small-scale embedded generators.
“Our wheeling pilot project is at an advanced stage and we are actively exploring options for battery storage to optimise the use of renewables in our energy mix. Cape Town is undoubtedly the premier investment destination for renewables.”
In April, the Mother City announced a R16.4 billion budget, largely to drive renewable energy generation in the city.
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