This is according to Craig Pace, director at Vanguard, an international heavy lift, abnormal transport and installations specialist.
"A recent report from the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) shows that the 1,600MW of renewable energy installed by December 2014 has saved the country over R5bn," said Pace. The 32 renewable energy projects had already been completed and connected to the grid, with government planning to more than double this figure by reaching 3,625MW by 2030.
"What is really encouraging about these developments is that they are producing electricity at a very competitive cost - so that the net financial benefits of renewables will remain positive even in future when the national grid is less constrained," he said.
The Integrated Energy Research Centre at CSIR reported that the cost per kilowatt/hour (kWh) of renewable energy for new projects is now well below R1 for solar photo-voltaic (PV) production and between 60c and 80c for wind projects.
"The government's three Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP) bid windows have procured more than 60 renewables projects, with combined capacity of 3,900MW," said Pace. "Another 77 bids were received in the fourth REIPPPP window last year, indicating the enthusiasm and investment appetite of many foreign companies."
The private investment associated with the projects procured to date amounts to R140bn.
Vanguard has been integrally involved with a number of pioneering wind farms around South Africa in recent years. "We have engineered efficient solutions for dealing with the large and complex wind turbine components being imported for wind farm projects - from discharging the vessel, specialised transport requirements to the hard stands, on-site lifting/erection and electrical installations of 108 wind turbine generators," he said.
Among the recent contracts completed have been the West Coast One wind farm near Vredenburg on the Western Cape coast, where Vanguard erected 20 Vestas V90 2.0MW turbine generators with its GTK1100 crane, and the Chaba wind farm near Komga in the Eastern Cape, where the company discharged seven Vestas V112-3.0MW wind turbine generators from the vessel, off-loaded into a storage area, and reloaded for transport to the wind farm.
Other projects include the Grassridge wind farm, also near Port Elizabeth, the Noblesfontein wind farm near Victoria West in the Northern Cape, and Metrowind's Van Stadens wind farm in the Eastern Cape.
