South Africa increases capacity of sixth renewables procurement round, leaves solar quota unchanged

The South African Department of Energy has issued a new request for proposal for the sixth round of the nation's Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Program (REIPPPP).

The government said that it will increase the total power capacity allocation from 3.6 GW to 4.2 GW. However, the quota for solar will remain unchanged at 1 GW, while the wind quota will be raised from 2.6 GW to 3.2 GW. The new deadline to submit project proposals is Oct. 3.

“Further announcement regarding the remaining 1,000 MW of solar PV will be made following the conclusion of the NERSA process regarding the concurrence of new determination,” the government said.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa asked to double the size of the round in late July, in order to help the country to cope with frequent blackouts.

“The amount of new generation capacity procured through bid window six for wind and solar power will be doubled from 2,600 MW to 5,200 MW,” Ramaphosa said at the time.

The procurement exercise is part of a plan to tender almost 12 GW of capacity and follows the recent publication of South Africa’s new Integrated Resource Plan (IRP). The IRP aims for up to 6 GW of new large-scale solar by 2030, as well as up to 6 GW of distributed-generation PV capacity.