The 125% tax incentive for installing renewable energy projects could ease load-shedding and increase energy security — and all this at a cheaper cost.
Opportunities to invest in renewable energy are coming.The R9bn in tax incentives for private sector installation of renewable energy power facilities announced by finance minister Enoch Godongwana last week is a critical new step on the road to greater energy security. This is a boon not only for the country, but also for businesses and households able to take advantage of these incentives.
But Godongwana’s announcement of a 125% tax deduction for installing these kinds of projects means we’re now likely to see many more gigawatts added to that 6.5GW. And it’s an incentive likely to attract businesses beyond just the mining sector too. There are various ways to incentivise new generation capacity. The city of Cape Town showed the way earlier this year when it
We hope other metro local authorities, and then larger towns, are preparing to introduce similar schemes, especially as the new tax incentives will ensure greater capacity for this. If the government wants to optimise the private sector opportunities the 125% tax incentive can open, Godongwana’s cabinet colleagues could take a range of steps, particularly as he has put a lifespan of only two years on this scheme municipalities or provinces makeagricultural land open for wind and solar farms, since these projects don’t affect farming operations?
Now, each of these departments has good regulatory reasons that such permissions are needed. But equally, there is no good reason why applications should have to travel through each department, one at a time, for each project. These permissions can surely be considered simultaneously.