Africa’s biggest renewable power company said it will take years for SA’s electricity supply woes to ease after the government’s bias toward coal led to the collapse of wind and solar energy manufacturers. | News24_Business
That legacy is being exacerbated by global supply chain issues that are slowing the construction of renewable plants, Chris Antonopoulos, chief executive officer of Amsterdam-based Lekela Power, said in an interview.
SA is suffering its worst ever power cuts as the aging and poorly maintained coal-fired plants of state utility Eskom suffer frequent breakdowns. Under President Cyril Ramaphosa, the continent’s most industrialized country is now pushing for more renewable energy, but it’s still reliant on coal for more than 80% of its power.
"There were two or three years when Eskom was arguing that coal was better and cheaper," Antonopoulos said. In this period, where"nothing happened, a lot of the local industry collapsed," he said.During a five-year period when SA halted a program to acquire renewable energy for the grid, companies set up to make towers for wind turbines failed, and there is little local manufacturing capacity for solar panels.
Lekela, which is in the process of being acquired by Africa Finance Corp. and Egypt’s Infinity Group, operates wind power plants with a capacity of 624 megawatts in SA. It plans to bid in future renewable energy auctions in the country, and also has facilities in Egypt, Senegal and Ghana.In times of uncertainty you need journalism you can trust. For 14 free days, you can have access to a world of in-depth analyses, investigative journalism, top opinions and a range of features.
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