Construction World October 2015

COMMENT

In 2010, when South Africa just started with its drive to generate more electricity from renewable sources, particularly solar energy, there were almost no utility-scale photovoltaics in the country.

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budgeted for. Renewable power has shed the perception that green power is expensive power and is now viewed as a very viable and easy option (a big photovoltaic plant takes only 16 months to build). Renewable installation is a bright light – in both the electricity industry and the construction industry in South Africa. According to the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, government will procure in excess of 6 000 MWof wind, solar and hydro plants which represents the biggest surge in power capacity since the 1980s.

Today South Africa has a capacity of 1 000 MW which is a bit more than the power a nuclear reactor generates. The construction of renewable installations, such as the massive 320 000 photovoltaic panels of the 94 MW Sishen solar project, is surging in South Africa and elsewhere in the developing world. In fact, in April the process of harvesting renewable energy was accelerated in line with the National Development Plan. The irony is that in South Africa – the world’s fifth biggest supplier of coal, used in the generation of electricity – solar and other renewable energies are gaining very fast. So fast that since 2011 these industries have attracted some R193-billion in investments. There is still a huge difference and some way to go, but the gap is closing: 88% of SA’s elec- tricity is generated from coal, while a mere 1,8% of electricity is generated from wind and solar. There are many reasons for the accelerated growth. The obvious is the extreme elec- tricity shortage, exacerbated by the fact that that Medupi and Kusile coal-burning power stations are years behind schedule and have cost significantly more than originally

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Wilhelm du Plessis Editor

A sustainable construction world

Sustainable ConstructionWorld is published as a supplement to ConstructionWorld . This 36-page magazine highlights the advances South Africa has made in building in a sustainable manner by focusing on celebrated projects, a new tool available from the Green Building Council of South Africa (in its quest in leading the South African construction industry to building greener), sustainable building materials and alternative energy sources.

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EDITOR Wilhelm du Plessis constr@crown.co.za ADVERTISING MANAGER Erna Oosthuizen ernao@crown.co.za LAYOUT & DESIGN Lesley Testa CIRCULATION Karen Smith

PUBLISHER Karen Grant PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY Crown Publications cc P O Box 140 BEDFORDVIEW, 2008 Tel: 27 11-622-4770 • Fax: 27 11-615-6108

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The views expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the editor or the publisher.

CONSTRUCTION WORLD OCTOBER 2015