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| Sun, 14th Mar 2021 11:22:00 |
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Solar & Wind In South Africa Contributed More Than Nuclear For 1st Time Ever In 2020 |
South Africa’s grid is dominated by coal. According to the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), published in its latest “Statistics of utility-scale power generation in South Africa in 2020? report, coal still accounts for a whopping 83.5% of power generation. South Africa’s coal power plants provided 184.4 TWh of electricity in 2020. Nuclear energy contributed 11.5 TWh (5.2%), and for the first time ever, variable renewable energy surpassed nuclear, contributing 12.4 TWh (5.6%). The rest was met by other sources, including diesel, hydro, and pumped storage plants.
In total, South Africa’s power plants generated 227 TWh of electricity. Variable renewable energy refers to utility-scale wind, solar PV, and concentrating solar power (CSP) — excluding hydro. Nuclear’s contribution comes from Eskom’s Koeberg nuclear power station. The Koeberg plant is the only nuclear power station in Africa. It is a pressurised water reactor (PWR). According to Eskom, Koeberg has the largest turbine generators in the Southern Hemisphere and is the most southerly-situated nuclear power station in the world. It has two 970 MW units giving an installed capacity of 1,940 MW.
South Africa has been gradually adding utility-scale wind, solar PV, and concentrating solar power (CSP) for years, increasing the installed capacity from 467 MW in 2013 to 5,027 MW by the end of 2020. 414 MW of wind and 558 MW of solar PV were added in 2020 alone.
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