DATE OF SUBMISSION: 1 OCTOBER 2010
NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES
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QUESTION 321
QUESTION FOR WRITTEN REPLY
321. Mrs E C van Lingen (DA-EC) to ask the Minister of Energy:
1) Whether her department has formulated a policy on (a) Renewable Energy
and (b) Regulatory Framework to regulate the payment of financial
incentives in order to encourage the development of practical
application of wind energy; if not, why not; if so, what are her
departmentâs programmes that are available to support the development
of (i) projects on the utilisation of wind energy as a sustainable
renewable source of energy and (ii) other forms of sustainable
renewable energy;
2) whether her department has (a) introduced any (i) formal guidelines,
(ii) policy directives and (iii) site criteria, (b) published a wind
resource map and (c) developed regional wind plans in respect of wind
generation projects; if not, (i) why not and (ii) what is the
anticipated date by which these projects will be introduced; if so,
when will they be made available to the public;
3) whether her department has put any measures in place to assist
provinces, regions and local government to put the necessary plans in
place to manage the respective wind energy projects; if not, what is
the anticipated date by which these measures will be adopted; if so,
what measures? CW416E
Reply
1) The 2003 White Paper on Renewable Energy policy is currently under
review. The updated White Paper on Renewable Energy policy will be
submitted for Cabinet approval for public comment by the end of this
year.
In March 2009, NERSA announced feed-in tariffs for wind R1.25/kWh,
concentrated solar power R2.10/kWh, small hydro R0.94/kWh and landfill
gas R0.90/kWh. They announced in October 2009 feed-in tariffs for
concentrated solar power with storage R3.14/kWh, grid connected PV ⥠1
MW, R3.94, biomass R1.18/kWh, biogas R0.96/kWh and concentrated solar
power tower with 6 hrs storage/day.
Procurement of renewable energy and cogeneration under the REFIT
program is governed by the Regulations on New Generation Capacity (Gov
Gazette No 32378). The Integrated Resource Plan (IRP1) was approved in
December 2009 and provides for projects under REFIT and MTPPP. The
MYPD 2010/11 â 2012/13 provides for funding of these projects in IRP1.
The Renewable Energy Finance and Subsidy Office (REFSO) in the DoE and
the Renewable Energy Market Transformation project (REMT), funded by
the World Bank, provide financial assistance for projects during the
developmental stages.
2) The Department of Minerals and Energy and Eskom published wind atlases
in 1995 and 2001 respectively. A review of these wind atlases
concluded:
⢠âThe accuracy of the prediction of wind energy resource at potential
sites based on the present wind atlases is very poor. The main
reason is the location of the weather measuring masts close to
buildings and other obstacles. Therefore the present wind atlases
should not be used to predict the energy output at potential sites to
be used in feasibility studies.â
⢠âThe accuracy of the resource estimates may be improved significantly
by establishing a network of high quality wind measurements including
at least 30 m masts.â
⢠The review team also noted that as part of the analysis carried out
the study indicate that the wind resources at potential sites are of
magnitude comparable to the resources of several other locations
around the world, which have been exploited for large scale wind
power projects.
The South Africa Wind Energy Programme (SAWEP) is funded by the Global
Environmental Facility (GEF) with the DoE as the Executing Agency and
the UNDP country office the Implementing Agency. The Wind Atlas
project is funded by SAWEP (R6.8 million) and the Royal Danish Embassy
(RDE) DKK 9,998,441.2.
The Wind Atlas project overcame previous shortcomings by making use of
10x 60m high, properly designed, constructed and instrumentised wind
measurement masts, covering areas of the Northern-, Western and Eastern
Cape. Data from these wind measurement masts will be used to calibrate
and verify models that will be used to develop the Wind Atlas and
database. The modelled and verified Wind Atlas and database will be
accurate enough to be used for feasibility studies, motivation of
bankable projects and national resource planning. The data will be
made public through wind data display and data download web sites to be
launched at the 2nd Annual Wind Energy Seminar, 28 September 2010. The
1st Wind Atlas and database will be published, 12 months after the wind
measurements started at the beginning of 2012.
The development of wind farms is influenced by several factors:
renewable energy policy, integrated resource plan, funding, wind
resource, land ownership, regulation and legislation, access to the
grid, spatial development, environmental sensitive areas, etc.
All wind farm development has to undergo a full EIA process and can
only proceed once a positive Record of Decision has been issued. The
DoE is supporting an initiative of the Department of Water and
Environmental Affairs and stakeholders (provincial departments, Eskom,
fauna and flora conservation groups etc) in coming up with national
guidelines, within a year, that can be used for resource planning and
by investors, developers in identifying areas most suitable for wind
farm development i.e. areas most likely that a positive RoD will be
issued for wind farm development.