Page 10 - AfrElec Annual Review 2021

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South Africa tops G20

for coal power

SOUTH AFRICA SOUTH Africa is the most coal-reliant G20 picked back up in 2020. A combined total of 1.04
nation, and must embrace cheap renewables to GW new wind and solar capacity was installed;
exit its electricity crisis and phase out coal, the the first time since 2016 that installations topped
Ember think-tank said in its recent Global Elec- the gigawatt mark.
tricity Review 2021. Fossil fuels provided 89% of South Africa’s
In 2020, 86% of South Africa’s electricity electricity, down from 93% in 2015. This reduc-
came from coal, compared with the global aver- tion has mainly come from coal generation,
age of 34%. It is significantly ahead of the next which has fallen by three percentage points and
highest G20 member, India, which generates now makes up 86% of the electricity mix. These
71% of its electricity from coal. dynamics are closely linked to the operations of
Meanwhile, wind and solar only make up 6% Eskom, the state-owned utility company.
of South Africa’s electricity, the report said. Looking ahead, the report found that the
Total electricity demand fell by 4.3% (-10 challenge of decarbonising such a coal-reliant
TWh), driven by two main factors: the impacts system is made even larger by the reliability
of coronavirus (COVID-19) and continuing issues plaguing the grid, and the dire financial
effects of rolling blackouts due to unplanned situation of the state-owned utility Eskom.
outages at coal power stations. But with new wind and solar capacity cheaper
Generation from wind and solar has almost than new coal, and the closure of these unreli-
tripled from the 2% of South Africa’s electricity able coal plants inevitable, there is a clear path
from wind and solar in 2015. However, this is still that South Africa must pursue to transform its
notably below the global average of 9.4%. electricity system.
South Africa is experiencing an unprece- However, with the economy fostering persis-
dented electricity crisis, which has seen electric- tent inequality and highly intertwined with coal,
ity demand fall by 5.4% since 2015. it is absolutely imperative that any transition is
The spiralling cost of new coal plants have left just, and planned with socio-economic devel-
the state-owned utility Eskom in a dire financial opment at its core. Part of this is setting clear
situation, leading to increased electricity tar- market signals as to the future trajectory, so it is
iffs which have caused electricity demand to welcome that Eskom has announced it is aiming
stagnate. for net-zero emissions by 2050.™
At the same time, a lack of maintenance at
older coal plants has led to rolling blackouts
owing to unplanned outages. This has acutely
affected industry in South Africa, and slowed
growth and socio-economic development.
“South Africa already faces a tough challenge
in successfully decarbonising its coal-heavy grid.
But any continued investment in coal generation
will make the scale of this challenge harder, and
further entwine the fate of the economy with
that of the coal sector. The government’s recently
stated ambition to reach net-zero by 2050 is a
welcome announcement, but massive deploy-
ment of cheap wind and solar is crucial to pur-
suing an orderly transition away from coal, while
navigating a path out of the current electricity
crisis affecting the country,” said Euan Graham,
electricity tracking analyst at Ember and one of
the report’s authors.
Wind and solar have increased their mar-
ket share from 2% (5 TWh) in 2015 to 5.5% (12
TWh) in 2020, but this is still lower than the
global average of 9.4%.
This growth had been slowing as capacity
additions, particularly for wind, slowed down in
2018 and 2019. Promisingly, however, additions

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