South Africa’s Presidential Climate Commission (PCC) has advised the country, which primarily relies on coal for the vast majority of its electricity, to forsake coal in future power generation and only use a minimal amount of gas. These submissions were made as inputs to the revisions of the country’s energy blueprint, the Integrated Resources Plan. Instead the commission advised government to invest in renewables to find a way out of the electricity crisis. In a report released last week, the PCC said an ambitious roll-out of solar and wind power will increase the share of renewables in SA’s energy mix from 7% to 40% by 2030. It is also the least cost option for creating the type of energy sector South Africa needs to adhere to its international climate commitments, according to the PCC. It stated that government should aim to get a least 8GW of wind and solar power onto the grid every year for the next two to four years just to resolve the load shedding crisis.
