SOUTH Africa needs to upgrade its coal-fired power plants rather than focus on renewable energy, according to a sanctioned Russian billionaire who made his fortune in part from generating electricity using the fuel.
“The priority for the country should be first to fix and modernise the fleet of power plants because that’s fast, cheap and allows a reasonable price of electricity,” Andrey Melnichenko said in an interview last week at a lodge in Irene, north of Johannesburg.
South Africa’s grid is concentrated in the north-east of the country, where its coal-fired electricity plants, which regularly break down, are located. Meanwhile, there’s little capacity in the provinces where solar and wind resources are readily available. The country uses the dirtiest fuel to generate 80% of its electricity.
Melnichenko, founder of Suek JSC, said modernising or repairing Eskom’s 14 coal-fired plants would be cheaper and more effective, adding to a raging debate
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