SOUTH AFRICA: LOCAL CONTENT TO BOOST WIND ENERGY CAPACITY

The South African Wind Energy Association (SAWEA) estimates that South
Africa will need to produce roughly 640 wind turbines each year until 2029 to
meet the energy goals outlined in the country’s Integrated Resource Plan (IRP)
announced last month.

Fortunately,
capacity already exists in the country to produce 150 steel wind towers per
year as well as related components, according to Marubini Raphulu, CEO of
investment group Hulisani, which has an effective 25% shareholding in
local wind tower producer GRI Renewable Energies.

In addition, there
is capacity to produce concrete towers and introduce new local steel wind tower
manufacturers.

Industry players
are calling for urgency in procurement to feed new wind energy into the power
grid by 2022 given the three-year lead time from procurement to production – an
additional 1,600MW of additional wind power capacity will be added to South Africa’s generation mix every year between 2022 and 2030.

“We support this
call, as the GRI operational plant is already producing 150 steel wind towers
per year with the capacity to produce more. This equates to the towers required
to produce 450MW to 750MW of the allocated capacity using 3MW to 5MW wind
turbines respectively,” said Raphulu.

He added: “The
remaining balance can be provided by concrete towers or new steel tower
manufacturers. The business managed to keep operating during the delay in the
publication of the new IRP and has exported wind towers over the past two
years.

“While we will need
to procure additional capacity to meet South Africa’s wind energy goals, we
must ensure that local content procurement rules are enforced to ensure that we
not only retain but grow employment, develop skills and reduce costs in the
longer term.”

Located in
Atlantis, Western Cape, GRI opened its wind tower manufacturing plant in 2014,
creating over 300 jobs in an area with high unemployment rates and developing specialised
skills in the process.

GRI is a
significant contributor to the wind industry in South Africa and produces
additional components required for wind farms.

Atlantis has been
declared a Special Economic Zone, which makes the business more competitive as
it prepares to further grow its manufacturing capacity.

South Africa also
has an established steel industry which will benefit from higher local
consumption of steel.

“The investment has already been made in the manufacturing plant and skills. GRI supports the local industry while exporting world class products and skills. It therefore makes sense to procure as many towers locally as possible instead of importing them,” Raphulu concluded.https://www.esi-africa.com/industry-sectors/generation/south-africa-local-content-to-boost-wind-energy-capacity/