Cape Town gets closer to becoming free of load shedding

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Cape Town is inching closer to its goal of becoming the first city in South Africa to be free of load shedding. The metro has secured assistance from the C40 global network for two projects, one being the construction of a R1.2 billion solar photovoltaic plant at Paardevlei outside Somerset West.

The city says once operational, it will be able to generate 60mw of renewable electricity, further shielding residents from an additional stage of load shedding.

The city says it’s on track to eliminate its reliance on Eskom for its electricity needs. It says once completed, the Paardevlei Ground Mounted Solar PV and Battery Storage System project will be able to produce 60mw of clean, solar powered energy.

The metro is co-funding the “Decarbonizing the city’s grid through solar farming and energy efficiency” project, with R447 million of the total amount of R1.2 billion.

This, it says forms part of the myriad of initiatives and investments which it’s undertaking to mitigate the impact of the energy crisis.

“When you are having higher stages of load shedding like we are having today, we are on stage 6, the city is protecting by two stages today. But sometimes we are only able to do one stage, we want to just add more and more projects here in our grid in the city so we can go to permanent stage two protection, stage three protection, stage four protection, and above so we are still on track for the three year time frame that I have committed to. This is part of that project so it’s subject to the same time frame and once it is connected with the great assistance from the C40 climate finance now, we hopefully can make it go a little bit faster,” says Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis.

The solar project is one of the two in Cape Town which the C40 Cities Finance Facility will support. C40 is a global network of mayors of the world’s leading cities united to confront climate change. Funders of the initiative include the German, United Kingdom and French governments. They say major investments are needed to mitigate the global energy crisis and climate change.

“More than half of the world population lives in cities and cities account for over 70% of global CO2 emissions. An additional 4-trillion US dollar, I can’t even imagine how many zeros these are, investment in urban infrastructure will be needed annually to address climate change making cities also a microcosm of innovation and change for the future,” says Consul General of the Federal Republic of Germany, Tanja Werheit.

The second project, the Liveable Urban Waterways Project is aimed at ensuring the long-term sustainability of the city’s waterways.

“The projects are remarkable as they link green and economic development with clear equity and inclusion principles. The projects will have positive benefits in terms of better water and air quality, resilience of the environment and sustainable communities, energy security and green jobs,” says GIZ country director South Africa, Thomas Schaef.

Of more than 60 cities that submitted proposals for CFF support, Cape Town is the only one to have had two selected.