Hon Chairperson, the hon Greyling agrees with us that we must move from A to B together. However, the only thing that he is doing as an opposition member is playing a game that says, "The route you are taking is not the correct route to date. Because there is more than one route, we will take other routes. Well, you are taking the A route, but I prefer or argue that we must take B." That will get us stuck and we will not be able to move. I will be prepared to deal with this much more if time allows at the end of my input.
Chairperson, the Department of Energy has already, by way of my colleagues, alluded to the nation of South Africa and the economy. It is like the heart and blood circulation of the body of a living being. The heart is an organ without which there is no life in the body.
The current situation in this department of such magnitude is that it is operating with 52% of its approved establishment structure, because it is alleged by the National Treasury that there are no funds to capacitate the department. If fully capacitated, the department requires a total of 927 employees, as opposed to the current status quo of 565 employees, including support staff.
The department is faced with the very serious challenge of climate change, which requires urgent moves in areas like renewable energy and alternative energy to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, the creation of independent power producers, IPPs, to ensure green jobs, and competition in the generation of energy. Let me take this moment to focus on climate change, renewable energy, independent power producer procurement and, of course, black economic empowerment.
As you are aware, South Africa hosted COP 17 in December last year. The COP 17 discussions in Durban highlighted the importance of the multinationals in critically considering the negative implications of the continuous use of primary energies such as coal and diesel to produce electricity and other nonelectrical energy carriers.
We in South Africa need to take a holistic approach to the problem of planning for future energy needs, and we seek to ensure that environmental and climate change issues, together with social development and economic growth issues, are all considered in a balanced manner, to which the Minister has already alluded and with which the hon Greyling agrees in his inputs.
Our planning for the greener future is emphasised by the introduction of renewable power production and the preparation of carbon capture and storage technologies, among others. The department has developed a policy document clearly indicating our appetite to increase the levels of renewable energies up to 42% of the primary energy mix by 2030.
Now, with regard to renewable energy and the IPPs, the Integrated Resource Plan indicates a balance between the different government objectives, specifically economic growth, job creation, security of supply and sustainable development, but more especially climate change issues. According to the department, the security of supply should not be compromised whilst all of the other objectives above are being contemplated.
In 2003, the Renewable Energy White Paper was developed by the department, indicating the government's intention to have the production of electricity include that from renewable resources.
According to the department, a request for proposals for renewable energy power projects was published in August 2011, requesting independent power producers to submit by November 2011 proposals for the first window of a five-window process. All bidders intending to bid for the first and second windows were required to attend a compulsory bidder's conference on 14 September 2011.
The department received about 53 bids and the received bids were across the different technologies for Window 1. Bids received in Phase 1 were solar PV, solar CSP, wind and small hydro. It was expected that wind and solar would dominate the bids, given the South African environment. You will notice that even the determination gave the wind and solar a greater MW allocation, compared to other technologies. The evaluation of the received 53 bids was started and concluded in November 2011.
In relation to the second window, the receiving of the bids closed on 5 March 2012. The process of evaluating the bids was similar to that in Round 1. In Round 2 the department received 79 bids and these bids amounted to 3 233 MW cutting across the different provinces, with the Northern Cape and the Western Cape taking a bigger share of the megawatts. Similar to Round 1, wind and solar were the predominant technologies, especially around the Northern Cape and the Western Cape. As the Minister said in her speech, she will be announcing the outcome of the second bid window in due course.
With regard to the black economic empowerment sector, according to the department, and as announced by the Minister, the work of the Liquid Fuels Charter audit is now complete and the production of the report is proceeding. We in the Portfolio Committee on Energy are patiently waiting for the report in order to engage stakeholders in earnest.
On the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer, REIPP, programme, the levels of BBBEE and BEE participation in the South African equity contribution are not as high as anticipated. This is a serious cause for concern which needs to be urgently addressed, especially by the private sector involved. However, the portfolio committee applauds the recently increased local content target of up to 60% for Window 2 for the Renewable Energy IPP programme. We therefore want to challenge all the black-owned companies, in line with what the Minister said, to diversify their investments and look into investing in energy projects.
Looking ahead, and I agree with the Minister, the project developers are encouraged to bring their factories to South Africa to manufacture locally the components that constitute the various systems of renewable power plants and develop skills.
Before we move on too much, I would like to pause and say that the ANC supports Budget Vote 29. [Applause.]