Green Rhino Energy: PV power can help solve South Africa’s grid failures
PV technology can help stablise the country's often inconsistent electricity grid, according to Joachim Baumgaertner, managing director of PV developer Green Rhino Energy. In the wake of rolling blackouts that occurred all across South Africa last week Baumgaertner said: "PV power actually produces peak power, because it produces power during the day. Solar and coal can be a good combination. It can replace the base load during the day."
South Africa's electricity grid struggled last week after almost a week of continuous rainfall made coal too wet to use in the many coal-fired power plants across the country. As a result, Eskom, South Africa’s state utility company that supplies 95% of the country’s electricity, initiated rolling blackouts for the first time since 2008. South Africa’s cities were hit particularly hard, as both Cape Town and Johannesburg issued schedules for power cuts. Eskom lifted the power emergency on late Thursday night.
While Baumgaertner said that PV would be a welcome adition to the grid, he also warned of the dangers of oversaturating the system with too much solar energy. "Obviously, PV alone can actually create some instability and destabilise the grid if there is too much. I think in South Africa at the moment, they’re still not at that level," said Baumgaertner, whose Green Rhino firm is developing a 150MW solar farm in Zimbabwe. According to Bloomberg, about 23% of Eskom’s 42.5MW of installed energy capacity has not been in use this year. South Africa has received plenty of attention from PV developers this year, with analysts IHS rating the country as the most attractive emerging PV market in a quarterly report released in January. When judged on macroeconomic market, profitability, infrastructure strengths and other emerging markets, South Africa topped the rankings by scoring 66 out of a possible 100 points. South Africa also received praise from IHS for setting a solar energy goal of 8.4GW by 2030 and for its national renewable energy programme, which has attracted significant interest through the REIPPP procurement programme.