South Africa needs 3000-4000MW of renewable energy per year over the next 30 years

Annually, this would be the equivalent of adding one of South Africa’s mid-size power plants to the grid. Mr Mbalula said at a climate commission conference last Thursday that this rapid pace may allow the country to develop adequate economies of scale for local manufacturers to build parts for wind and solar, as well as utility-sized batteries.

“This manufacturing can create real jobs, not just intermittent jobs in the installation and construction, but decent permanent jobs linked to large scale manufacturing,” the minister said.

“We must invest in peaking power to provide the energy security that our country so desperately needs. We must continue to phase out coal, in a manner that is carefully structured and planned," he added.

“Specifically, this means repurposing and repowering our existing coal plants, and creating new livelihoods for workers and communities most impacted in the change,” Mbalula noted.

The minister of transport said his department was striving to equip the automotive manufacturing sector for new prospects in a cleaner transportation system, including electric vehicles. He added that the country’s transition to green energy would require both governmental and private sector assistance, as well as a deliberate push towards green finance.

The transition to a green energy economy will require massive shifts within South Africa’s domestic financial system in order to mobilise both public and private capital for the transition,“ he said. This would include strengthening regulation and institutional arrangements, partnering with the public sector for delivery, and attracting capital into new markets, new technologies, business models and SMMEs, as reported by Pretoria News, a partner of TV BRICS.

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