The Energy Mix: Electrifying South Africa

The discussion took place on 28 September in Johannesburg and the panellists were Dipuo Peters (Minister of Energy), Bobby Godsell (Chair, Business Leadership SA), Ira Magaziner (The Clinton Foundation) and Hilton Trollip (Independent Analyst)

The Minister admitted that there is still a lot of hard work to be done by the government and its supporting partners in ensuring that the electricity crisis in South Africa is successfully addressed.  It is without a shadow of a doubt that this crisis, if not redressed sooner rather than later, will continue to have devastating long term effects on the economy as well as on the majority of poor South African people.  The Energy Ministry stated the commitment by the government to renewable energy sources which include wind and solar platforms.

Ira Magaziner stated that the current two largest challenges facing humanity are poverty and climate change, and thus clean energy needed to be a priority. In this regard he spoke extensively on the Clinton Foundation’s discussions with the Ministry of Energy detailing the feasibility studies and research conducted around the construction of a large scale solar power plant for the Northern Cape. He noted that such solar thermal energy could ultimately be used as base power for the grid.

A key issue that arose from the discussion and was detailed by Hilton Trollip was that the democratisation process is important in ensuring that decisions made on issues relating to the production and distribution of electricity need to benefit the entire population equally, and not only the interests of profit making elites.

Bobby Godsell conceded that coal would always be a continuing electricity generator, but he spoke about the importance of using all the different types of electricity generators and that nuclear power plants would need to be a large part of the mix. He also noted the importance of estimating the energy demands of the country for the next thirty years and that the GDP growth rate would be a key factor in this determination.

The future of South Africa’s energy supply should be a concern to everybody who lives in the country, and therefore citizens should adopt a nature of resourcefulness and conservation. Decisions about energy supply and regulation that will be taken in the next few years are likely to have a massive impact on the country’s industrial and social development spheres and thus research informed decisions need to be made especially when entering into partnerships with other global countries.

The main question that the discussion attempted to address was “What is the best energy mix that will ensure energy security for South Africa and, indeed, the region for the next quarter of a century?” and the closet answer to the question, which the discussion conjured up, was the reduction in the absolute reliance on fossil-based fuels, and a move in the direction of renewable energy sources.