• About
    • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Climate News Network Archive
  • Contact
Celebrating our 1,000th edition. The climate news you need
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
No Result
View All Result
  FEATURED
BREAKING: No Public Finance for East Coast LNG Projects, Wilkinson Says July 4, 2022
‘Climate Math Gets Harder’ as Radicalized Supreme Court Upends U.S. Carbon Regulation July 4, 2022
Dire Living Conditions, Climate-Driven Heat Wave Produce Deadliest Human Smuggling Event in U.S. History July 4, 2022
Ex-Fossil Workers Convert Old Oilfields to Solar Farms After ‘Rapid Upskilling’ in Alberta June 29, 2022
London Becomes Biggest City to Sign Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty June 29, 2022
Next
Prev
Home Jurisdictions Africa

‘Social Backlash’ Could Hold Up Renewables Adoption in South Africa

November 21, 2017
Reading time: 2 minutes

WitKop Solar Farm/YouTube

WitKop Solar Farm/YouTube

 

Leaders of South Africa’s solar electricity industry are calling for government programs to ease the way for workers and communities affected by the looming decommissioning of some of the country’s coal generating stations.

Absent a targeted transition program, warned Davin Chown, chair of the SA Photovoltaic Industry Association (Sapvia), and Mike Levington, who chairs its green economy subcommittee, a social backlash will hold up the necessary shift to renewable energy.

“Two facts are undisputable,” the pair write on South African business news site Fin24. “Firstly, a least cost scenario [for power supply] cannot include nuclear and, secondly, Eskom [the national electrical utility] will need to decommission some 27.5 gigawatts of coal-fired power stations by 2040.”

And yet, “for the communities who have for decades been dependent on coal-fired energy for their livelihoods, the energy transition is a spectre that threatens the very reason for their existence.”

Coal lobbyists complain that the wider adoption of renewable energy “will result in massive job losses in coal mining and related sectors—and it is hard to disagree with them,” Chown and Levington write. “Once-lively mining communities are slowly sliding into decay, and this will accelerate over the coming years.”

The job insecurity has led to protests. Earlier this year, they recall, “thousands of coal truck drivers brought traffic to a standstill in Pretoria to protest against Eskom’s signing new renewable energy contracts.”

Within the national government, as well, the prospect of losing steady revenue from central power plants has led to “the sowing of anti-renewable sentiment”.

But preventing new contracts with independent renewable energy suppliers won’t save coal industry jobs.

“The cost of new-build solar and wind energy in South Africa is now comfortably below that of new-build coal and nuclear, making it increasingly difficult for Eskom to make a rational argument for choosing coal or nuclear over renewables,” Chown and Levington note. “Add to this that many coal-fired plants are due to reach the end of their life cycle in the next three to five years, and it is clear that renewables have to be part of our energy future.”

But even though “the number of new jobs created in the renewable sector may outnumber the number of jobs lost in the coal sector,” they acknowledge, “on an individual level it will be catastrophic without some form of intervention.” That threat underscores the need for government and business to “work together to develop policy that will not only assist in reskilling labour, but also in developing alternative industries that are geographically and structurally matched.”



in Africa, Coal, Ending Emissions, Environmental Justice, General Renewables, Jobs & Training, Solar

The latest climate news and analysis, direct to your inbox

Subscribe

Related Posts

Wikimedia Commons
Oil & Gas

BREAKING: No Public Finance for East Coast LNG Projects, Wilkinson Says

July 4, 2022
123
angela n./flickr
United States

‘Climate Math Gets Harder’ as Radicalized Supreme Court Upends U.S. Carbon Regulation

July 4, 2022
122
opinion polling gender green recovery climate action
Media, Messaging, & Public Opinion

Conservative Women Far More Likely Than Men to Support Green Transition, EcoAnalytics Research Finds

July 4, 2022
80

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Trending Stories

angela n./flickr

‘Climate Math Gets Harder’ as Radicalized Supreme Court Upends U.S. Carbon Regulation

July 4, 2022
122
Wikimedia Commons

BREAKING: No Public Finance for East Coast LNG Projects, Wilkinson Says

July 4, 2022
123
U.S. Navy/picryl

Montreal to Host New NATO Climate Centre as Military Analyst Confronts Global ‘Hyperthreat’

July 4, 2022
81
opinion polling gender green recovery climate action

Conservative Women Far More Likely Than Men to Support Green Transition, EcoAnalytics Research Finds

July 4, 2022
80
Maurits90/Wikimedia Commons

San Francisco Commuter Train Derailed by Scorching Track Temperatures, Extreme Heat

July 4, 2022
49
EdmondMeinfelder/flickr

Dire Living Conditions, Climate-Driven Heat Wave Produce Deadliest Human Smuggling Event in U.S. History

July 4, 2022
35

Recent Posts

Adrian Grycuk/Wikimedia Commons

Youth Climate Case Moves to Top Tribunal in European Court

July 4, 2022
34
Seci/wikimedia commons

Saudi Aramco Talks Net-Zero, Plans to Boost Production Through 2035

July 4, 2022
21
Keith Weller/Wikimedia Commons

U.S. Methane Plan Gives Big Ag a Free Pass

July 4, 2022
28
Fadi Hage/wikimedia commons

Indoor Farming Revolution Comes with Significant Carbon Cost

July 4, 2022
37
Mont SUTTON snow terrain

Southern Quebec Towns Scramble for Solutions as Water Sources Dwindle

July 4, 2022
37
Pxhere

Marine Stewardship Figures Prominently in Latest Project Drawdown List

July 4, 2022
24
Next Post
Gage Skidmore/Flickr

Koch Empire, Fossil Industry Winning Bigly Under Trump

The Energy Mix

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Navigate Site

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy and Copyright
  • Cookie Policy

Follow Us

No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}