South Africa Now Has Over 12 Gigawatts of Wind & Solar Generation Capacity!

South African homes and businesses have added 3,526 MW of rooftop solar in just two years! It is just wonderful to see how fast electricity generation capacity can be added from rooftop solar. According to data from South Africa’s national electricity utility company, Eskom, there were about 2,264.5 MW of rooftop solar PV installed in South Africa as of July 2022. According to Eskom’s latest update, South African homes and businesses have now installed 5,790.5 MW of solar PV.

The distributed solar sector has been growing at a much faster rate than South Africa’s utility-scale renewables programme. South Africa started off well in this area over a decade ago with its Renewable Independent Power Producer Programme (REIPPP), which is aimed at bringing additional megawatts onto the country’s electricity system through private sector investment in wind, biomass, and small hydro, among others. Since its inception, REIPPP has successfully added 6,430.2 MW to South Africa’s energy mix.

Eskom’s recent system status update shows the following:

Current Renewable Energy Installed Capacity — Utility Scale (MW)

Adding the contribution from rooftops and other distributed solar plants, the total installed renewable capacity in South Africa now stands at 12,221 MW! This growth in distributed solar PV, plus the 2.3 GW of utility-scale PV, is now contributing to South Africa’s own duck curve.

All of this additional generation capacity is great for South Africa, as it helps alleviate some of the electricity generation challenges the country has been facing over the past decade. South Africa has a nominal installed electricity generation capacity (utility-scale plants only) of 54.7 GW, 72.4% of which is from coal power plants. However, a lot of South Africa’s aging coal plants have not been performing very well, forcing the utility company to implement an electricity rationing schedule, infamously known as loadshedding.

There is some good new on this front. Eskom recently announced that it has been four months (121 consecutive days) of uninterrupted power supply since 26 March 2024, including 87 days of constant supply throughout the winter period. The suspension of loadshedding in South Africa has brought some relief to South African homes and business that were facing spiralling costs from using alternative sources such as diesel backup generators.

Eskom reached another significant milestone on 23 July 2024 by achieving 35,000 MW of available capacity, with an evening peak demand of 30,740 MW. This level of available capacity has not been seen for six years, specifically since 16 July 2018. This achievement is attributed to reduced unplanned outages which have dropped to 9,238 MW. Additionally, Eskom achieved an average Energy Availability Factor (EAF) of 70% over the past seven days.

Eskom adds that its “Generation Recovery Plan” continues to deliver efficiencies, with an approximate R9.09 billion reduction in Open-Cycle Gas Turbines (OCGTs) diesel expenditure from 1 April 2024 to 25 July 2024, compared to the same period last year. Eskom had been spending a lot of money on diesel. It’s good to see that rooftop solar is starting to contribute a considerable portion of South Africa’s electricity generation mix during daytime hours.