Ramaphosa acts to ease South Africa’s energy crisis: impact will be felt in renewables

South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa recently announced an action plan to address the country’s growing energy crisis. It included relaxing the legislative and environmental requirements to speed up private investment and increase generation capacity. The Conversation Africa’s Nontobeko Mtshali asked Wikus Kruger for his insights.

What impact will this have on renewable energy uptake?

Part of the challenge with the president’s announcements – and it’s natural that this will happen in a public speech – is that it’s relatively light on details and timelines. And so not everything is clear. The one thing that was clear though is that the environmental requirements that will be relaxed will only be those for solar PV (photovoltaic) farms. And this will only be in areas with medium to low environmental sensitivity.

That’s an important step because environmental approvals are usually the longest and and most expensive part of the regulatory process.

But there are important elements