Afrique du Sud : March 28, 2011
South Africa is endowed with abundant renewable energy resources such as wind, biomass, solar, landfill gases and small scale hydro. In light of Eskom’s uncertainty in fully satisfying the nation’s energy needs, the country’s regulatory body, NERSA, has introduced the Renewable Energy Feed-in-Tariff or REFIT. REFIT encourages the role of independent renewable power producers and mandates that the Government purchase the generated power at a predetermined price.
As a developing country whose main energy source is fossil fuel, South Africa has, to date, developed Phase I and II of the REFIT program. NERSA is committed to ensuring the third phase of the program that provides small scale technology options to renewable energy generation. It is important to note that REFIT is a work in progress. The fact that the program is geared towards large scale projects hinders the potential in schools, households and businesses that have since been maximized in developed nations.
As electricity prices in South Africa will continue their upward trend it is imperative that renewable power generation be implemented. The ultimate impact of REFIT may never be completely realized until all stakeholders unite towards the common goal of having a viable alternative to conventional electricity generation. Although most of the work on renewable energy done by the Government has been primarily geared at creating a level playing field, there are still a number of challenges and barriers that hamper this type of investment. While the REFIT program provides an attractive incentive for developers, it does not totally eliminate the financial risk. Like other countries who subsidized their renewable energy programs, such subsidies were never guaranteed and were often cut back or eliminated in the face of other Government obligations. Other barriers to renewable energy investment can include lack of skills and information, limited research and development, inadequate regulatory structures and limited incentive programs.
Therefore, the time is now for knowledge to be distributed in its abundance so as to not only set precedence on alternatives that save costs in the long term, but also, most importantly, find solutions for future generations to come.