Financial benefits of renewables in South Africa in 2015
A second independent study by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) found that renewable energy from South Africa's first wind and solar (photovoltaic) projects created R4 billion more financial benefits to the country than they cost during the first six months of 2015. The study is an update and continuation of an initial study that was published in January this year, which covered the calendar year 2014. The benefits earned were two-fold. The first benefit, derived from diesel and coal fuel cost savings, is pinned at R3.6 billion. This is because 2.0 TWh (terawatt-hours) of wind and solar energy replaced the electricity that would have otherwise been generated from diesel and coal (1.5 TWh from diesel-fired open-cycled gas turbines and 0.5 TWh from coal power stations). The second benefit is the saving of R4.6 billion to the economy derived from 203 hours of so-called 'unserved energy' that were avoided thanks to the contribution of the wind and solar projects. During these hours the supply situation was so tight that some customers' energy supply would have had to be curtailed ('unserved') if it had not been for the renewables. The avoidance of unserved energy cumulated into the effect that during 15 days from January to June 2015 load shedding was avoided entirely, delayed, or a higher stage of load shedding prevented thanks to the contribution of the wind and PV projects.