Eskom South Africa targets clean energy sources primarily by 2040

Eskom, the South African state-owned utility, aims to switch to mostly clean energy sources from its coal-based fleet by 2040. It announced this on Wednesday when it revealed its latest plans to make the shift.

Eskom wants to reduce its coal power from 39 GW down to 18 GW by 2040. This was revealed in a presentation to legislators on the company's energy sources.

Eskom announced that it would implement renewable energy projects by "repowering", older coal-fired stations scheduled for closure, and through new projects.

Repowering is the process of replacing older power generation equipment with more modern technology. Eskom has identified a number of old coal-fired power plants that it plans to replace with gas-fired or renewable energy plants.

Eskom has an in-house business unit for renewable energy to implement projects, and work with private companies.

Eskom said that its debt load of 400 billion rands ($22.31billion) was a major obstacle to achieving its clean energy goals. It also claimed this burden was causing it to invest less in renewable energies.

The report also cited the growing debts owed to it by South African municipalities, and the uncertainty surrounding regulated electricity tariffs that it claims are too low to cover its expenses.

(source: Reuters)