Coal-rich but energy-hungry South Africa will not immediately abandon its fossil fuel-fired power plants as it transitions to cleaner forms of energy, President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Sunday.
South Africa, one of the world’s biggest polluters that generates around 80 percent of its electricity from coal, is on the brink of an energy crisis.
It has been blamed on aging power stations, sabotage, and the theft of coal and spare parts by organized gangs.
Since 2021, the country has secured several billion dollars in international loans and grants to support an ecological transition.
But Ramaphosa cautioned against “the perception that we are called upon to compromise between energy security and a just transition to a low-carbon economy.”
Addressing senior officials from his African National Congress (ANC) party, he said it was not the case “that we must choose between coal and renewables.”
“Our energy architecture is 80 percent coal-fired, there’s just no way we’re going to shut down those power plants…just like that,” he said.
Two recently built plants, ranked among some of the world’s largest coal-fired power plants, are plagued with design problems.
But they will remain operational until the end of their 40-year useful life, he promised.
“We have invested a lot of money in these power plants,” he told the ANC meeting.
Plants nearing the end of their useful lives will be repurposed for clean energy, he said.
South Africa’s energy crisis has forced scheduled outages, ranging from two and a half hours to 12 hours total in a day.
