- The National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) has successfully registered 16 new renewable generation projects.
- The applications were made in April, and processed in 19 days.
- In the first quarter of 2022, Nersa approved the registration of 54 generation projects.
The National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) has registered 16 new generation facilities, which use the licence exemptions for generators under 100MW.
The registration process took place within 19 days, and all applications were received in April, according to a statement from the regulator.
The regulator also recently registered two other 100MW projects. It took 73 days to complete that process.
All the generators use renewable energy – 15 are powered by solar PV and one is powered by wind turbines.
According to Nersa, 11 of the facilities will generate electricity for their own use, and five will generate for commercial use.
Most (12) of the applicants will connect to Eskom's network, while four will connect to municipalities. Two solar PV generation facilities will be based in the City of Tshwane. The remaining two will be based at the City of Ekurhuleni and Emfuleni Local Municipality – all in Gauteng.
The biggest project registered is an 80MW solar plant by Lephalale Solar and will connect to Eskom's grid. Second is the Msenge Emoyeni Wind Farm, with a capacity of 72MW, which will also connect to Eskom's grid.
Nersa has approved 216 registration applications since the legislative change in October, which lifted the licence threshold from 1MW to 100MW.
In the first quarter of the 2022 calendar year, 54 generation facilities were approved. The total investment cost is approximately R452 million, Nersa said.
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