Onshore wind, solar thermal, solar photovoltaic, biomass, biogas, landfill gas and small hydro projects can all compete for a power purchase agreement (PPA) under the bidding process.
Renewable project developers will compete for PPAs, replacing the South African government’s plan for a feed-in tariff (Refit) that would have offered a fixed incentive per megawatt hour.
The invitation went out to South Africans in the form of an advertisement in this past weekend’s Sunday Times newspaper.
The ad, placed by the South African Department of Energy, follows the government’s decision last week to establish a target of building 1 GW of renewables capacity by 2013, ramping up to 3.8 GW by 2016.
About 3.7 million people in South Africa currently do not have access to electricity and the government predicts that it will need to build a total of 50 GW of electricity generating capacity by 2030 to bring those people onto the grid and meet future demand.
Earlier this year, the government announced that renewables should make up 42 percent of new capacity.
The bidding rules were scheduled to be announced later today. The speculation is that it is likely to involve a two-step process, with projects needing to meet minimum standards on localisation, job creation, as well as meeting the country’s Black Economic Empowerment requirements.
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