Mixed Greens: S Africa to auction another 3.2GW of renewables

The South African government says it will open a new bidding round for renewable energy projects that should add another 3,200MW to the national grid by 2020. Bloomberg reports that the auction is targeting 1,470MW from onshore wind projects, 400MW from concentrated solar power and 1,075MW from solar PV projects. There is also expected to be around 47.5MW in biomass and biogas; 60MW of small hydro and 100MW in other small projects, the country’s Energy Minister Dipuo Peters said.

Last December, the government approved 28 wind, solar and hydropower projects costing 47 billion rand ($US5.4 billion) and 19 proposals valued at 73 billion rand in May. Companies selected to supply 1,275MW of power in the first round have concluded financing arrangements. Besides increasing its renewables energy supply, the South African government also wants to produce 2,500MW more from coal and 2,609MW more from hydropower by 2024, as well as 2,562MW of extra gas power by 2025.

In other news…

Scotland has set a new target to generate the equivalent of 50 per cent of its electricity from renewable energy by 2015. BBC News reports that first minister Alex Salmond revealed the target at the RenewableUK conference in Glasgow on Tuesday, after the government confirmed that Scotland had beaten a 31 per cent target for 2011 by about 4 per cent.

Japanese manufacturer Hitachi has agreed to buy Horizon Nuclear Power from Germany’s two largest utilities – RWE and EON – for £696 million. Bloomberg reports that the transaction will be completed next month and secure financial backing for as many as six new nuclear reactors at two sites in Britain which, unlike Germany, remains one of three western European nations expanding atomic power.

ASX-listed Infigen Energy – Australia’s largest pure-play renewable company – has released its first-quarter FY13 results, revealing a 9 per cent rise (from the previous corresponding period) in group revenue, to $A63.3 million, and a 4 per cent rise in group production to 946GWh (520GWh in the US, 426GWh in Australia, up 9 per cent on pcp). The company attributed most of the boost to Australian production to the contribution from Woodlawn wind farm and generally better wind conditions across all sites (except Alinta wind farm).