Renewables investors warn SA prices becoming ‘dangerously low’

The joint developers of the R3-billion Jeffreys Bay wind farm, situated alongside the N2 in Eastern Cape, have lauded South Africa’s transparent and well-run renewable-energy bidding programme and indicated on Wednesday that they would be participating in the upcoming fourth bid window. However, the global heads of both Mainstream Renewable Power and Globelec – whose companies have, to date, invested in 238 MW of wind and solar capacity – warned that the benefits of unfettered competitive bidding were limited and urged government to ensure the programme sustained an appropriate “balance” between risk and reward.