White Paper on Renewable Energy and Clean Energy Development

The Objective of the policy is to increase the share of modern renewable energy consumed and provide affordable access to energy throughout South Africa, thus contributing to sustainable development and environmental conservation. South Africa has an estimated existing (in 2000) renewable energy (RE) contribution of 11 278 GWh/annum mainly from fuelwood and waste. The Renewable Policy White Paper sets up the medium-term target (10-year) of 10 000 GWh or 0.8 Mtoe RE contribution to the final energy consumption by 2013 in addition to the existing RE contribution. At the basic level, the RE policy attempts to remove barriers that prevent RE penetration in the South African market.

The policy addresses 5 key strategic areas:

• 1. Promotes appropriate financial and fiscal instruments. This includes redirecting national resources/investment to RETs and provision of fiscal incentives
• 2. Develop effective legislative instruments in order to facilitate RE dissemination. This will be achieved by passing regulations for pricing and the integration of IPP into the electricity system
• 3. Promotion of R&D of RETs through the provision of guidelines/standards and code of practices as well as supporting appropriate R&D and local manufacturing.
• 4. Raising of public awareness about RE through support of training centres, improved information dissemination strategies, improve government communication strategy, etc.
• 5. Establish technology support centres, such as the National Energy Research Institute. The policy is to be reviewed periodically. Funding will be provided through the National Fiscus and International donors

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