South Africa has issued the first request inviting proposals for renewable energy procurement for 3,740 megawatts (MW) in the biggest such program in Africa. Currently, coal is the major energy source for South Africa, accounting for around 80 percent of the country’s energy mix. But South Africa is going through a significant energy crisis with daily rolling power cuts that are crippling the economy as state firm Eskom continually fails to boost generation capacity to keep pace with growing demand in recent years. Early this year, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen said that the United States supports South Africa’s transition to cleaner energy and will help mobilize financing from the private sector to assist the coal-dependent country. The U.S., the UK, France, Germany, and the EU are mobilizing an initial $8.5 billion to catalyze the first phase of South Africa’s Just Energy Transition (JET) Investment Plan as part of a long-term Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) signed in 2021.

Source: The North Africa Journal April 26, 2023 19:09 UTC