South Africa launches bidding for 5,000 MW of power from renewables

South Africa has launched three bidding rounds for 7,615 MW of power generation prioritizing renewable energy.

Besides renewable energy, the new power generation will also be from natural gas and battery storage.

According to a statement issued by the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy, it had issued three requests for proposals (RFPs) for independent power producers to generate 5,000 MW of renewable energy, 2,000 MW from gas and 615 MW from battery storage.

Earlier, the authorities had also launched six renewable energy bidding rounds. It included wind and solar projects, one battery storage project, and one separate round focusing on gas-fired powerships.

As per a local report, energy minister Gwede Mantashe shared that “to date, 90 renewable energy projects have completed construction and are operational, adding 6,180 MW of capacity to the grid.”

Similarly, nine projects with a capacity of more than 1,000 MW are currently under construction.