The inclusion of 200MW of concentrated solar power in the first round of the South African energy department’s 2010 Integrated Resources Plan could be intepreted as both good news and bad for the concentrated solar power community.

The 20-year plan was designed to achieve the optimal mix of supply-side resources and demand-side management to meet electricity distribution needs. When it was first drafted concentrated solar power (CSP) technology was the ‘in-flavour’ and seemed destined for favourable treatement in the final report.

However, due to its higher cost relative to other renewables, (photovoltaics in particular), and with successive financial market contagions, enthusiasm for CSP began to wane. Unless there is a change, CSP will constitute just 1,000MW of the renewable energy content of some 18,000MW to be delivered by IPPs by 2030.

Round one, which is where the process is currently at, offers roughly 1,400MW of renewable energy to IPPs, of which 200MW is set aside for CSP. The good news is that 150MW will be installed (with 50MW carried over into Round Two). On the flip side, further capacity has yet to been allocated to the technology beyond the 200MW, with the government taking a cautious 'wait-and-see' approach.

Hostile energy landscape

South Africa’s energy sector is inherently difficult to navigate. However, in a bid to increase electricity generation to a blackout-weary nation, the industry finally appears to be making some headway with regard to private sector participation.

At this stage the IPPs are limited to renewable energy generation. This has not deterred them; private generators have been shut out of South Africa's energy market for so long that they are scrabbling over the slimmest of market pickings.

The curtain was raised on South Africa’s new energy era when its energy department rolled out the IRP2010, which included an enthusiastic endorsement of CSP. Despite the government’s intial enthusiasm having quelled somewhat, the contention in the CSP camp is that the technology is as good as it always promised to be - and is worth a bigger slice of the IRP’s renewables quotient.

Spanish CSP specialist Abengoa Solar was awarded 150MW of the available 200MW CSP build as part of a 1,416MW IPP-driven foundation for the future of South Africa's renewable energy growth, and a harbinger of 17,800MW of renewable energy planned for 2030. This in turn will contribute to the 40,000MW of new energy South Africa will require if it is to keep its economic growth trajectory on track in the timeline two decades hence.

The Abengoa contract, comprising the 50MW Khi Solar One tower and the 100MW KaXu Solar One parabolic trough plant, is scheduled to break ground in June this year with commissioning anticipated in June 2014. The sites are on the remote Northern Cape diamond fields in the heart of the Kalahari scrublands where sunshine is the most abundant commodity.

Why Abengoa? “Hard work,” replied Pablo Infante, Abengoa’s business development manager, in an exclusive interview on the sideslines of CSP Today’s Johannesburg conference in early February. 

“Particularly on the financial aspects with the South African government’s Industrial Development Corporation, with whom we have built up a very good partnership. We presented our proposal and we were the only bidders for the trough 100MW and tower 50MW near Upington in the Northern Cape province and Kalkoets respectively”, he added.

Rentia van Tonder, head of green industries at South Africa’s Industrial Development Corporation, helped put together the $1.4bn financial package that secured the nod for CSP’s South African debut. According to van Tonder, the Abengoa project seemed a safe bet, given the company’s track record.

Abengoa is a pioneer in solar thermal technology. The company has installed and currently operates 193MW in Spain and a 150MW ISCC plant in Algeria, and boasts a technology portfolio comprosing two towers and three parabolic troughs.

“We won’t be wasting any time,” assures Infante. “We’ll have the financials ready for a June kick-off.”

Convincing technology

Stellenbosch University, a few kilometres from Cape Town, has been researching CSP for the last 20 years. Paul Gauché, senior researcher and coordinator of the Solar Thermal Energy Research Group is convinced that if the full potential of CSP is realised, the technology could compete with gas, coal and nuclear in terms of baseload in the next 10 to 15 years.

But he concedes there is the risk factor. “CSP does have a lot of risk,” he told CSP Today, “and that’s because it is at such an early position in the technology development curve, or the lifecycle of the technology, if you like. It could completely implode if someone perfects electrical storage.”

But that is unlikely in the short-to-medium term; for the time bineg,CSP’s unique storage capability works strongly in its favour.

It appears that, going forward, South Africa’s energy department will err on the side of caution and will make a final decision on the size of IRP2010’s CSP involvement once the risks and unknowns quotient have been sluiced out and the installations in the Kalahari are up and running.

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Rikki Stancich: rstancich@csptoday.com