Renewables rigour

In an address dominated by the announcement that South Africa would indeed be moving ahead with a controversial procurement process for 9 600 MW of new nuclear capacity, Energy Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson offered some interesting feedback on the performance another electricity procurement programme: the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP). She reported that the competitive-bidding model for the procurement of renewable-energy projects from independent power producers (IPPs) had delivered major cost reductions since its introduction in 2011. In April 2014 terms, the average per-kilowatt-hour tariff for onshore wind had declined by 55% to an average of 62c, while the solar photovoltaic tariff had fallen by 76% to 79c.