South Africa, Johannesburg: Meeting South Africa’s energy needs may be challenging, but the SAPVIA is ready to support the government and Eskom.

This support comes as proactive steps are taken to expand energy generation and lay the foundations for an efficient, modern and competitive energy system.

Welcoming the ‘SONA of Hope’, Nivesh Govender, COO of SA PV Industry Association (SAPVIA) said, “We commend President Ramaphosa for the strategic approach he has taken in his address. It is entirely appropriate that he identified energy generation capacity as one of the four priority interventions of the Recovery Plan for South Africa. The focus now moves to the Energy Minister to rapidly roll out the objectives identified in the SONA. As an industry, we stand ready to support government in the delivery of these imperatives.”

SAPVIA welcomes the comments made by the President calling for policy and regulatory action in support of an increased distributed generation licence exemption cap which is to be implemented in the next three months. Distributed Generation can rapidly add capacity to the grid, reduce load-shedding, and create jobs as well as spur localisation and industrialisation, which will be vital in driving the economic recovery.

SAPVIA has long been engaged in advocating for the systematic easing of licencing thresholds, to unlock the significant opportunity held by distributed generation.

“We have welcomed the backing of the state-owned utility and numerous other constituencies, to support the lifting of licensing thresholds from 1 MW to 50 MW in order to accelerate distributed generation by large customers,” says Govender.

Source: ESI Africa