1 December 2011
Press release
The Department of Energy welcomes the appointment of South Africa to the Chair of the 17th Congress of Parties and, will work hard to support the Minister of the Department of International Relations and Coordination in carrying out the duties incumbent to the post on behalf of the nation and, the continent.
With regards the Energy agenda, the current reality is that more than 65% of South Africa's total energy needs are met through coal as the primary energy source. This is followed by crude oil at around 22%, while the remaining 13% of our energy needs are met by gas, nuclear, hydro and renewable energy sources combined. Coal therefore plays the dominant role in our supply of energy, especially in the electricity sector where approximately 90% of the country's electricity is produced in coal-fired power stations, (the country's biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions), while nuclear, natural gas; hydro and renewable energy sources make up the remaining 10%.
We cannot, however ignore the fact that we are a coal-rich economy, nor can we ignore the significant contribution of the coal mining industry towards the economy. In 2010 South Africa had an estimated 32 billion tonnes of coal reserves (which at current local consumptions rates can last us more than 100 years to come) and according to Statistics South Africa, the coal mining sector contributed about 1.8% of GDP directly.
The White Paper on Energy Policy for South Africa states that "not only must government increase its capacity to deal with the pressing needs of the day, but it must also improve its ability to address long-term issues, such as the development of renewable energy resources to achieve a more sustainable energy mix". Therefore, these statistics should not and have not deterred us from acknowledging the other reality of the impact that coal-related emissions have on health, the environment and of course climate change.
As a country we are committed to playing our part to reducing total emissions and therefore moving towards a low-carbon economy. As we are all aware, this commitment was entrenched when the President pledged for South Africa to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 34% by the year 2020 and further tighten this target by reducing emissions by 42% by the year 2025, provided technology and finance are made available.
The signing of the Green Economy Accord by the government and its social partners two weeks ago marks yet another significant milestone in achieving this. Of the 12 commitments made in the accord, some are direct contributions by the energy.
In May this year, we promulgated the Integrated Resource Plan (commonly referred to as the IRP) for Electricity, which is a 20-year capacity expansion plan for the electricity sector.
The IRP seeks to have an energy mix whereby 42% of all new capacity is from renewable energy sources, followed by 23% from nuclear, 15% from coal, 9% from liquid fuels, 6% from natural gas and 6% from imported hydro. This plan sees renewable energy playing a more significant role and eventually contributing 9% towards the total energy mix for electricity generation.
We aim to achieve our target of installing one million solar water heaters in homes by 2014; and securing commitments from the private sector for the supply of 3 725 MW of renewable energy by 2016. This capacity will primarily be from solar, wind, biogas, biomass, landfill gas and small hydro technologies.
The Wind Atlas project which is being undertaken by various research institutions including SANEDI and the CSIR aims to develop and employ numerical wind atlas methods and develop capacity to enable large scale of exploitation of wind power in South Africa.
Given the fact that we are a coal-rich economy, the accord also commits the government to have an increased focus on the advancement of clean coal technologies through projects such as underground coal gasification, as well as carbon capture and storage (CCS) through our energy research and development institute (SANEDI).
CCS is a key potential greenhouse mitigation option for the country and as the energy sector we are committed to its implementation. We want to invest in CCS technologies, and efforts have been made to scale these technologies up to a commercial scale.
In this regard, the South African Centre for Carbon Capture and Storage (SACCCS) under SANEDI was established to support development and deployment of geological sequestration in the country. The South African "Carbon-Dioxide Geological Storage Atlas" launched in 2010 identified significant (150 Gigatons) potential CO2 storage capacity in the country. The next milestone for the centre is for development of the technologies which will enable the first test injection to be up and running by 2016.
If we are serious about diversification towards a low carbon economy, we cannot ignore the role that natural gas can play as a bridging option in this transition, because natural gas emits significantly lower greenhouse gases than other fossil fuels such as coal and crude oil.
Coal Bed Methane (CBM), is no longer regarded as an obstacle in the coal mining sector and is instead fast becoming known as a commercially viable energy source. It is also increasingly important that we collaborate with our neighbours such as Mozambique (with whom we already have long term cooperation on gas supply), Namibia, Angola, Botswana and Zimbabwe.
Regional cooperation (similar to that which is well-established in Europe) is essential if we are to tackle energy development successfully while assisting each other with our developmental needs.
South Africa already imports a substantial amount of gas from Mozambique, which is primarily used for Gas-to-Liquid plants and other industrial processes. Plans are currently underway to construct a gas-fired power plant with 140MW capacity through a joint venture between Sasol and the local Mozambican power utility. Natural gas is not only beneficial in that it has less carbon content than coal and crude oil, but gas fired plants require less water; have shorter construction times; and have lower capital costs per unit of capacity when compared to coal fired plants.
South Africa is a highly-fuel dependent country, with 22% of overall energy consumption being that of liquid fuels. Approximately 70% of this is from crude oil as a primary energy source while the remaining 30% is from coal. The green economy accord also commits government to facilitate the development of a local biofuels industry and setting targets for the mandatory blending of bio-ethanol and bio-diesel into petrol and diesel.
In this regard we have published draft regulations which make it mandatory for oil refineries to blend 2% and 5% of petrol and diesel with bio-ethanol and bio-diesel respectively.
This will primarily reduce the quantity of emissions from vehicles. However, blending of biofuels alone is not sufficient in addressing the carbon footprint of the sector, and there is a need to move to cleaner fuels specifications such as those already adopted in most parts of Europe.
This will require substantial investments as current refining technologies will have to be overhauled to adapt to new specifications. We are currently weighing out the option of constructing a new refinery in accordance to these new specifications. This will ensure that we reduce emissions from the sector whilst at the same time meeting the increasing demand.
We are a water-constrained country, however, not all of Africa is. The Congo River and its Inga Dam in the DRC provide a significant potential for energy. President JG Zuma recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding on the Grand Inga Hydroelectric Project with the President of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Sustainable Development
This project has an estimated capacity of 40 000 MW which has the potential to change the African energy sector and it would significantly increase Africa generation capacity. This will enhance energy access to clean and efficient energy across the continent and contribute significantly towards a low carbon economy and economic development.
In order to keep a balance between energy security and sustainable development, we realise that moving towards a low carbon economy is not going to be an overnight event.
