New coal-fired electricity BW2
This coal bid window was supposed to procure 1,500MW from clean coal technologies, which could include capturing carbon emissions from burning coal and storing them underground, although there are numerous variations of what is termed clean coal. HALTED: We stopped tracking this issue at end-June 2025 as it was part of the IRP 2019, which…
read more >>New coal-fired electricity BW1
This reform did advance with bid winners announced in 2016, but has since been halted following legal and environmental opposition. In December 2020, the High Court in Pretoria set aside the environmental approval for the 1,200 MW Thabametsi coal-fired power station that would have been built in its first phase at 557MW outside Lephalale in…
read more >>Nuclear electricity plant BW
The government issued a gazette to withdraw the intention to procure 2,500MW nuclear power, stating that more public consultation is required before the official RFQ can be issued. We stopped tracking this issue at end-June 2025. The 2,500MW new nuclear build was abandoned when the DoEE minister withdrew the ministerial determination in 2024. The updated…
read more >>Gas electricity capacity BW2
The draft IRP 2023 allocates 7.2GW-8.6GW of gas-to-power capacity. The gas BW2 aims to procure 1,000MW of new production at site-specific plant at Coega. To date, the BW has not yet been launched.
read more >>Gas electricity (floating) projects
Karpowership’s vessels projects were approved to provide 1,220MW of electricity capacity through the emergency’ procurement round. This came to an end when Eskom cancelled grid access for Karpowership after it was unable to meet the 31 December 2023 deadline for reaching financial close. HALTED: We stopped tracking this issue at end-June 2025. Following the failure…
read more >>Eskom land use programme
In April 2022, Eskom launched its land lease programme – a response to President Ramaphosa’s call for an “ambitious, bold and urgent response to the energy crisis”. The plan was to lease 36,000 hectares of Eskom-owned land in Mpumalanga to private sector companies that wish to develop their own power generation plants using renewable technologies….
read more >>Enabling municipalities to procure excess electricity from households
Municipalities are allowed to procure excess electricity from households (for example, from rooftop solar). This requires appropriate equipment to allow for net metering (that can track electricity fed to the grid as well as taken from it). Cape Town has introduced a net metering scheme in 2023 but to date is the only municipality to…
read more >>REIPPPP BW6
According to the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE), five projects were selected in BW6, with a total of 860MW of capacity, far short of the 5,200MW target. Of these, only two have reached financial close and are in construction, Virginia Solar Park in the Free State and Doornhoek PV in the North West….
read more >>Battery storage BW1
In November 2023, four bidders were announced as preferred bidders for four locations as part of the Battery Energy Storage Independent Power Procurement Programme (BESIPPP), while the fifth was announced on 2 April 2024. The BESIPPP BW1 aims to procure 513MW site-agnostic battery storage. Four of these projects totalling 257MW have now reached financial close…
read more >>Battery storage BW2
The DMRE launched the second bid window (BW2) for the Battery Energy Storage Independent Power Producers Procurement Programme. The closing date for bidders was 29 August 2024, following the RFP release on 14 December 2023, The deadline for bids was extended from 30 April to 6 June 2024 and later to 29 August 2024. This…
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