{"id":91389,"date":"2026-07-10T06:30:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T06:30:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/?p=91389"},"modified":"2026-07-10T11:55:30","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T11:55:30","slug":"outlier-renew-20-staring-at-the-sun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/2026\/07\/10\/outlier-renew-20-staring-at-the-sun\/","title":{"rendered":"Outlier Renew\u00a0#20: Staring at the sun"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The Statistical Review of World Energy 2026 was released recently and with it comes an easily accessible dataset. I used it to create the chart below, which shows the amount of electricity in terawatt hours (TWh) generated by wind and solar in South Africa per year since 2015. Solar generation overtook wind in 2025 and has risen steadily since to 18.6TWh in 2025. Wind generation, on the other hand, hasn\u2019t increased since 2023. In 2025, wind and solar together generated 29.9TWh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Compare the chart above with the one below, which uses statistics published by the National Transmission Company (NTCSA) in its weekly system status report. In 2025, wind contributed 11.3GWh to the electricity distributed by the NTCSA, far more than solar. In fact, there was 12TWh more solar generated, according to the Statistical Review, than the 6.5TWh contribution reported by the NTCSA. This is an indication of the extent of behind-the-meter and off-grid solar generation in this country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Why has wind generation plateaued? The last time an independent power producer won a bid to build a wind farm in the government\u2019s renewable energy procurement programme (REIPPPP) was in bid window 5 in 2021. Bid windows 6 and 7 were all solar projects. Grid space was an issue for wind projects in the REIPPPP programme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also, the vast majority of private renewable projects registered with Nersa are solar. But, interestingly, 29 big wind projects (over 50MW) have been registered with Nersa since 2023. If those get built and connected to the grid they could add 5GW of capacity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\ud83d\udce2\u00a0Outlier Renew has started new\u00a0Africa Electricity Monthly Report<\/strong>\u00a0where we compile information about project updates, financing deals, contracts and acquisitions that we add to our database each month. Our first report for May 2026 is available to\u00a0download here<\/a>. The June report will be available on 15 July.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

RENEWABLE PIN-UP<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Some of the 526MWh of battery storage at Kamoa Copper in the Democratic Republic of Congo (Photo: Matt Tilleard, co-founder of the CrossBoundary Group\/<\/em>LinkedIn<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

How do you guarantee round-the-clock power from the sun for one of the world’s largest copper operations? You build battery storage. Kamoa Copper’s energy strategy in the Democratic Republic of Congo is not just to build solar panels, but to engineer solar and battery storage to deliver baseload power \u2013 a continuous, guaranteed supply, something the mining industry has long assumed only hydro, gas, or diesel could reliably do for heavy industry. By December 2025, the mining complex had a total power demand of 208MW and no on-site solar. The two solar-plus-battery facilities, owned and operated by CrossBoundary Energy and Green World Energie under power purchase agreements with Kamoa Copper, are being commissioned and expected to reach full capacity of 60MW of continuous baseload power, with Kamoa Copper as sole offtaker, during Q3 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Location:\u00a0Kolwezi,\u00a0Democratic Republic of Congo<\/strong>
Commodity mined:\u00a0Copper<\/strong>
Activity:\u00a0Mining and smelting<\/strong>
Partnerships:\u00a0CrossBoundary Energy, Green World Energie (signed in 2025)<\/strong>
Total capacity with both partners:433MWp<\/strong><\/a>
Total battery storage: 1,107MWh
Current power:\u00a0Hydropower<\/a>, the national grid, diesel generators<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

NEWS WRAP<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u2600\ufe0f The National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) has approved\u00a0generation licences for four solar projects\u00a0<\/a>under the government\u2019s REIPPPP bid window 7.\u00a0Red Rocket SA is developing three of the projects, the 278MW Sculptor Energy facility in Mpumalanga and the 277MW Springhaas Solar Facility I and 206MW Springhaas Solar Facility VI projects in the Free State. The fourth project is Engie\u2019s 288MW Corona Energy project, also in the Free State.\u00a0Together they are contracted to add 890MW to the grid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u26a1\ufe0f Nersa has also approved\u00a0licences for Lepelle Nkumpi Local Municipality<\/a>\u00a0in Limpopo to operate an electricity distribution facility and conduct electricity trading. The approval applies to three areas that have been identified for electrification projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\ud83d\udd0b Envision Energy has won a\u00a0contract to supply the 660MWh battery energy storage system<\/a>\u00a0for the Naos 1 solar and battery project. The project will supply wheeled electricity to Sasol and Air Liquide. The project, which is being developed by SOLA Group, reached financial close in February.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\ud83d\udcb0 Maia Capital Partners has provided\u00a0R150-million mezzanine debt funding\u00a0<\/a>to renewable energy company Nesa Power. The funding will be used to acquire solar PV sites and expand its power purchase agreement portfolio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\ud83d\udcda The United Nations Industrial Development Organisation has selected the\u00a0Perseverance industrial zone in Nelson Mandela Bay<\/a>\u00a0to be part of a global study into green energy and carbon footprint reduction. The initiative could put the Perseverance cluster on the radar of international investors and serve as a blueprint for other business clusters, reports Daily Maverick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\ud83d\udcb0 The\u00a0International Finance Corporation has invested $10-million<\/a>\u00a0in CrossBoundary Access to finance the construction of new projects that provide reliable electricity access to underserved communities. CrossBoundary currently operates in Nigeria and Madagascar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

INSIGHTS & EVENTS<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Claimed battery ranges look great on paper. But real-world highway driving, air conditioning, and elevation changes tell a different story.\u00a0\ud83d\udee3\ufe0f\ud83d\udd0b<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On 15 July, Nafisa Akabor and William Kelly will join\u00a0Out to Lunch with The Outlier<\/a>\u00a0to unpack the realities of EV ownership in SA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019ve been sitting on the fence because of range anxiety, this conversation is for you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\ud83d\udcc6 15 July 2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\ud83d\udd51 \u00a01:00 PM SAST<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\ud83d\udcbb Webinar<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sign up\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\ud83d\udcbb Experts from Argentina and Chile will exchange practical insights on planning for growth, prioritising infrastructure investment and creating conditions for investor confidence in the first episode of the\u00a0Global Grid Expansion Dialogue Series<\/strong>, season two, on 21 July at 2pm.\u00a0To join the session, register here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":91390,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1388,1386,1380],"tags":[67,421,40,1391],"newsletter-post":[],"site":[],"class_list":["post-91389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-outlier-renew","category-publication","category-this-week-in-charts","tag-eskom","tag-solar","tag-south-africa","tag-wind"],"acf":{"big_number":"","big_number_caption":"","big_number_link":"","big_number_background":"","big_number_text_colour":"#000000","big_number_icon":false,"big_number_wide":"yes","featured_chart":false,"flourish_chart_id":"","flourish_sub_title":"","flourish_chart_width":"medium","is_newsletter_post":"No","post_style":"bc","show_on_front":"Yes","link_through":"Yes","chart_url":"","background_colour":"#0089AA","text_colour":"#FFFFFF"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91389"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91389\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":91394,"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91389\/revisions\/91394"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91389"},{"taxonomy":"newsletter-post","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newsletter-post?post=91389"},{"taxonomy":"site","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/site?post=91389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}