Is it possible for South Africa to move to 100% renewable energy?

Posted: 2019-12-16

Category: Energy, Opinion, South Africa, Uncategorised

25 posts

Environmental activist. Solar power enthusiast.

Currently the way South Africa is generating the electricity it needs is not working. It is unreliable, expensive, open to corruption and causes pollution. There has to be a better alternative way. A lot of people have recommended that we move from burning fossil fuels to renewable energy. But is this practical and possible? The following are just some of the arguments against renewable:

It is intermittent
It is not reliable
The grid not designed for renewable energy
It is too expensive
Battery storage is still too expensive
It is not suitable for an industrial economy
Hydro storage devastates large land areas
Solar power plants devastate large land areas
It is not supported by people in authority

Let’s have look at each of these reasons in detail and see how true and valid each one is.

Solar and wind energy is intermittent. This is true, and for this reason is it important that it is combined with energy storage to make it reliable. If you combine a variety of renewable energy generation sources with a variety of energy storage sources, you will end up with a very reliable energy supply.

Available renewable energy sources are: solar, wind, biogas, hydro, biomass and geothermal.

Available energy storage solutions are lithium-ion batteries, hydro and hydrogen.

If all these sources are combined and managed with intelligent grid management technologies, then renewable energy will be very consistent and reliable. Then, renewable energy can supply baseload power.

The grid is not currently designed for renewable energy. This is why most grid operators do not allow 100% feed-in. That might be the current situation, but the technology to make a grid more compatible with renewable energy has already been developed and is available. This is why Germany, is already able to get more than 36% of its total energy needs from renewable energy. (Renewable energy in Germany n.d.)

I am currently working for a company in Germany installing solar power in homes and businesses. Almost all new residential solar installations in Germany are combined with grid-connected energy storage, either the Tesla power wall 2 or the SolarEdge inverter and LG Chem batteries. Both Tesla and Solar Edge have intelligent grid management technologies built in. So the grid can communicate with the inverter to help stabilise the grid. Various factors of the grid can be assisted with such as voltage, frequency, power factor, and power quality. (SolarEdge Grid Services and Virtual Power Plant Solution n.d.)

According to a study by the energy research centre at the University of Cape Town, renewable energy is the lowest cost option if compared with fossil fuel-based options. (BRYCE MCCALL n.d.)

Solar panels have decreased rapidly in price over the last few years. The following graph indicates the historic cost of residential solar system installation cost per kilowatt installed.

Falling cost of installed Solar power per kWp

The same phenomena of falling prices are happening to energy storage and will very soon reach a point where it is as affordable and viable as solar panels.

Grid-scale energy storage batteries have also become viable in the last two years. Since 2017 various large scale batteries have been installed, for example, a 129 MWh Tesla battery has been installed in Australia. A large grid-scale storage battery is also being planned currently for Cape Town. (South Africa to get one of the world’s biggest battery storage systems n.d.)

So it is already cost-effective and viable, but still at a premium, if one considers the advantage that it gives now, in the fact that it makes renewable energy viable and reliable. And by making renewable energy viable and reliable, we can move away from fossil fuels and climate change that it causes. Then that premium is viable and worth it right now.

Some might say that renewable energy is not suitable for a large industrial economy, but only for residential. This is for the reason that it is intermittent, unreliable, and not enough. Germany is the third-largest economy in the world. (The World’s 10 Largest Economies by GDP n.d.)Yet more than a third of their energy is currently being supplied by renewable energy. And this is not just for short periods of time, but 36% of their total energy volume used comes from renewable energy per year. (Stromerzeugung und Stromverbrauch n.d.)

It has taken Germany more than 10 years since, 2009, to get where they are today, and in another 10 years, they will most likely get more than 90% of their energy from renewable energy. Also bear in mind that they have on average less than half the solar radiation than we have in SA. In Munich, one can expect to get 800 kWh energy production per year for every one kilowatt of solar power installed, wherein the Norther cape, Upington one get 1900 kWh energy production!

Also, this was done before solar panels where as affordable as they are now – easily more than double the cost than what panels are trading for now. So SA has double the solar radiation and we can buy solar panels now, at half the cost they bought it at. This means that we can in effect to it for one quarter the price they did it!

Energy generation assets will be much smaller and much more distributed. With multiple property owners owning multiple small energy generation and storage assets. The chances for large scale corruption and theft on the scale billions of rands as in Medupi, Kusile, and possibly a Russian nuclear station, is minimised and avoided.

Another reason why solar power is actually more suitable for large industrial installations is that solar installations on a larger scale are up to 50% more cost-effective per kiloWatt installed than small scale residential installations. Typically costing less than R 10 per kilowatt peak of installed solar.

Some people say that dams built for hydro energy storage devastate large land areas. This is true in one sense. But if one keeps in mind again that this energy storage provided makes RE viable and reliable. And this in turns eliminates the need for burning fossil fuels and the turns of greenhouse causing cases it pumps into the air, every second of every day. Then catastrophic climate change can be avoided. And by avoiding that climate change, one avoids rising sea levels. The amount of large land areas that will be devastated by rising sea levels is not even comparable to the small land areas that will be used for hydro energy storage dams.

Some say that solar power uses large pieces of land that could have been better used. That might be true in some cases. But solar can be installed on top of home roofs and commercial building roofs. These days solar power is even installed on top of large dams and lakes. Most big solar farms are installed in arid areas where the land could in any case not be used for anything except grazing. And lastly, with ground mount solar systems, the land can still be used for grazing for sheep and goats.

It is not just me that thinks renewable energy with energy storage is a viable solution, but fortunately, increasingly more people with authority, and in positions of influence and power think that renewable energy and storage is a viable alternative.

Chris Yelland, the MD of EE Publishers
Chris Forlee, CEO of the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA)
Clyde Mallinson, Registered natural scientist, renewable energy and flexible generation consultant

(Greater flexibility in electricity generation essential, delegates hear n.d.)
(Clyde Mallinson on renewable energy and flexible power generation n.d.)

Greenpeace has been doing great work in South Africa to promote renewable energy. Show your support for Renewable energy instead of Fossil fuels by supporting Green peace here. https://www.greenpeace.org/africa/en/act/environmentalinjustice/