Pandemic, war and 'crazy' prices threaten South African pivot from coal

The winners include EDF (EDF.PA), Scatec , Engie (ENGIE.PA), and Mainstream Renewable Power

South Africa, where daily blackouts are a fact of life, knows better than most that it cannot rely on coal power, Qazet.az reports.

But just when its plans to shift to renewable energy to help drive Africa's most industrialised economy were gaining momentum, rising costs linked to the pandemic and the war in Ukraine threaten further delay.

After a six-year hiatus, the country in 2021 held a bidding round for companies to operate wind and solar projects, attracting aggressive offers from more than 100 renewables companies, eager to make up for the shortfalls of state power generator Eskom.

The winners include EDF (EDF.PA), Scatec , Engie (ENGIE.PA), and Mainstream Renewable Power. They are among nine companies pledging to supply nearly 4,600 megawatts (MW) of power in the next two years that would go some way to solving Eskom's problems.

Eskom said last week that maintenance and breakdowns had knocked nearly 45% of its total 46,000 MW capacity offline. It says it needs up to 6,000 MW of additional generating capacity.

Apart from the unreliability of Eskom's ageing coal power plants, South Africa is also under pressure to end its reliance on highly-polluting coal as it is the world's 12th biggest emitter of climate-warming gases.

At U.N. climate talks last year, Britain, France, Germany, the European Union and the United States pledged $8.5 billion to help South Africa make a swifter transition from coal.