SA’s energy plan approved by cabinet

The Government’s energy plan for South Africa, known as the IRP2010, was approved by cabinet this month (March 2011).

There were a huge number of submissions to the draft plan, made by civil society, companies and individuals such as yourselves (5000 written comments in total). These have had an enormous impact!

The bad news:

1- There is no sign yet of the plan that has been approved. The official IRP website remains out of date and many have tried to reach the DoE for details, without any joy. However, some information and rumours are filtering through:

2 – A commitment to Nuclear is in the approved plan. This is horrifying, especially in the wake of Fukushima Japan.

3 – Rumours indicate that the plan underestimates the potential for energy efficiency initiatives, despite South Africa’s budget this year of R66m for an energy-efficiency R&D institute.

4 – Plans for coal are largely unchanged.

Good news we’re hearing:

1 – The cost of nuclear was upped by 40%!

2 – A Nuclear-free scenario has been modelled (we’re interested to know what this will reveal).

3 – Renewable Energy options have been increased (we don’t know yet, by how much exactly), and now include Solar PV.

Will keep you posted as things develop, and let you know as soon as the official plan becomes available.