Page 17 - Energize May 2022

NEWS

Renewable energy industrialisation will

unlock economic potential

he South African Wind Energy South Africa’s energy roadmap, IRP2019, requires 3600 wind turbines, underpinning
Association (SAWEA) and its sector the industrialisation plan and demonstrating a noteworthy opportunity for local
Tstakeholders are advocating for the employment and GDP contribution through annual production across the value chain. By
industrialisation of the renewable energy maximising the use of the current industrial capacity to supply materials and components
sector, to extrapolate the enormous into the sector’s demand areas, additional investments in capacity and capability will be
potential across the value chain, thereby stimulated.
unlocking both the economic power of the ‘We continue to support the various stakeholders, including Government, labour, civil
renewable energy industry and delivering society, researchers, industry contributors and other advisory groups, which are currently
broader benefits to the people of South drafting the South African Renewable Energy Masterplan. This plan addresses exactly how
Africa. we can industrialise the renewable energy value chain in our electricity sector to enable
The Association has stressed inclusive participation in the energy transition, serving the needs of society and contributing
the importance of managing the to economic revival,” said Govender.
industrialisation of its sector responsibly, South Africa has been relatively successful in establishing local manufacturing to serve
by ensuring that components are localised the utility scale wind market in the past, through the diverse representation of OEMs.
on the basis of their competitiveness However, whilst the renewable energy market is no longer nascent, the renewable energy
and value-add. To this end, SAWEA manufacturing component can still be considered as emerging. This was exacerbated by
reiterates that predictable and the hiatus in procurement in REIPPPP around the signing of Bid Window 4, which resulted
continued procurement underpins any in the loss of local civil engineering capacity. This now requires some level of ramp-up to
industrialisation policy and incentives to fully capacitate the sector again, in line with government’s resumption of the renewable
build more and better local capabilities, procurement programme.
in order for the wind industry to compete “Our industry needs to understand, harness, accelerate and maximise localisation to
with international markets, whilst move toward industrialising renewable energy in South Africa. To do this we will work
supporting local manufacturers to become alongside and within the framework and mechanisms, to ensure that this transition is
competitive for export markets. managed responsibly and can deliver true value and benefit for our industry, South Africa
“Transformation goes hand-in-hand and its people,” concluded Govender.
with the industrialisation of the wind
power sector. And market certainty is the Contact SAWEA, Phone 010 007-5655, admin@sawea.co.za, https://sawea.org.za
most important aspect to building a local
manufacturing industry. Hence, we require
the Department of Mineral Resources and
Energy to provide consistency, in line with
the IRP2019, to kick-start industrialisation
by upfront certainty on a number of
REIPPPP rounds and their primary local
content framework,” explained Niveshen
Govender, CEO of SAWEA.
The country’s power sector
procurement model started evolving
over a decade ago, with major policy
shifts. This has accelerated over the last
18 months, with the lifting of the cap on
the new generation capacity requirement
for a generation licence to 100 MW and
Government’s continued commitment to
rolling procurement. This is in line with
the global uptake of renewable energy
to increase energy security and achieve
climate goals.

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