Solar, wind and battery storage are essential to the low-carbon energy transition and there is likely to be greater demand for input materials used in these sectors in the years ahead. This was noted by Fitch Solutions business unit BMI Research’s Group Power and Low Carbon Energy analyst David Thoo, speaking during the company’s ‘Global Renewables Capex Trends: Effects on Solar, Wind and Battery Storage’ webinar, on September 7.
The global head of renewable-energy group Scatec is “extremely enthusiastic” about the market opportunities in South Africa, where he says variable wind and solar generation offer the cheapest and quickest route to injecting electricity into the loadshedding-prone grid. It is also where the company is building an enormous hybrid project that is poised to demonstrate the competitiveness of solar and batteries relative to conventional dispatchable technologies that take far longer to deploy.
G7 Renewable Energies has withdrawn its High Court review against Eskom’s Interim Grid Capacity Allocation Rules (IGCAR), following what it describes as “meaningful industry engagements” that have resulted in an “amicable resolution”. On June 17 Eskom unveiled the interim rules, which sought to address the prevailing scarcity of grid connections by shifting the allocation methodology from the ‘first come, first served’ approached that had applied previously to a ‘first ready, first served’ arrangement.