Insights
Local PV modules to play a key role in the REIPPP Round 4 in South Africa
Recent allocations from the Department of Energy have made South Africa become one of the most dynamic markets worldwide, and local modules are expected to play a key role in its development.
The South African solar market has grown into a mature industry able to create much needed energy generation capacity, local employment and a competitive renewable energy environment, attracting investment from major international players.
Recently the DoE has taken a stand to face the energy supply crisis and boosted the allocation of RE projects. When talking about Solar PV alone, Enertis highlights that if rounds 1 to 3 resulted in the allocation of 1,484MW, only in round 4 some additional 813MW have been selected. On top of that an accelerated, or expedited, round has been announced which will secure further 1,800 MW from various technologies ahead of the next-to-come round 5.
The evolution of the REIPPP has followed a path where projects selected have grown in size (75 MW projects are now the norm whereas almost 50% of the projects in Round 1 were comprised between 5 and 20 MW) and become very competitive in terms of price and local content. Round 4 prices have reached some of the lowest levels hitherto seen worldwide, and local content values are in average higher than 64%.