SAfrica's Eskom sees solar key in future power supply

By Agnieszka Flak

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Solar energy is South Africa's single biggest renewable resource and the only one likely to have a significant impact on the country's electricity supply, an official at power utility Eskom said on Monday.

Barry MacColl, Eskom's technology strategy and planning manager, said concentrated solar power (CSP) would help meet the country's fast rising demand, especially given its ability to store energy over time.

"If you subtract Eskom's committed investment to date, there is still about 26 gigawatts of required capacity by 2030 unallocated ... (concentrated) solar and (photovoltaic) need to be there," he told a solar energy conference in Johannesburg.

Eskom , dependent on coal for 80 percent of its power supply and one of the world's top three single polluters, plans to move more rapidly next year into renewables and to also tap cleaner coal technologies to reduce its carbon footprint.

The global solar energy market is growing, with installed capacity expected to rise to 20,000 MW by 2020 from 500 MW now.

Eskom is designing a 100 MW pilot solar thermal plant, estimated to cost 6-7 billion rand. The utility expects the power produced from solar to be cost competitive with coal-fired power within a decade, it said.

MacColl said it would take more than three years to build the pilot once the funding is approved, with a design, location and an environmental impact assessment already in place.

"(Many) are coming forward saying that they would give us money as part of an equity deal ... the issue is whether we can afford the capital and put it on our balance sheet," he said.