Watts in Store
Part 1: Explainer on how energy storage can help South Africa's electricity crisis
-
The declining performance of South Africa's coal fleet and grid constraints to adding new power plants reinforce the need for measures like energy storage that can maximize the use of existing infrastructure.
-
Energy storage—and particularly batteries in the short term—can help balance electricity supply and demand, improve grid stability, and boost energy providers' financial returns.
-
South Africa needs national and municipal grid storage strategies that will provide a positive signal to the energy storage industry that it can develop local supply chains.
Watts in Store Part 1 is the first in a two-part series about energy storage in South Africa. It explores how energy storage can contribute to solving the electricity crisis in South Africa, summarizes seven key benefits for the country, and gives the status quo of current plans and projects. International trends point to the rapid growth in grid-located batteries, and Part 2 of this series will take a deeper look at grid-located batteries in South Africa: how to maximize benefits, minimize risks, and create a more enabling environment for deployment.
Participating experts
You might also be interested in
Building a Net-Zero World: How U.S. Finance Can Strengthen Clean Energy Manufacturing Abroad
The world needs to rapidly expand and diversify clean energy supply chains to achieve net-zero carbon dioxide emissions by 2050 and mitigate dangerous climate impacts. While some sectors, such as solar photovoltaic manufacturing, are on track to hit their 2030 targets, there are major shortfalls in the production of many other clean energy products.
What happens to Canada after oil demand peaks?
What will the energy transition mean for Canada's oil and gas sectors, which have long been a powerhouse of the country's economy? Aaron Cosbey, a senior associate and economist at the International Institute for Sustainable Development, lays out what he sees happening to demand for fossil fuels in the next decade, and how the country can navigate the transition to minimize economic disruption.
Don’t write off the Just Energy Transition Partnership just yet
When it was announced at COP26 in 2021, South Africa's Just Energy Transition Partnership seemed to offer an answer to a weighty question: how can we not only usher in large-scale renewables investment into developing countries, but also rapidly wind down their coal sectors? However, in the nearly two years since the JETP was announced, critics have taken issue with everything from the way the JETP packages are funded to the pace at which they are being rolled out.
India's renewable energy ambitions could exceed 500 GW: ISA
India is poised not only to achieve its ambitious target of 500-gigawatts renewable energy capacity by 2030 but also surpass it, driven by an anticipated decline in battery prices by 2025, according to Ajay Mathur, Director General of the International Solar Alliance. Mathur said a fall in battery prices by 2025 could drive the widespread adoption of solar plus battery solutions, leading to the realization of India's ambitious target of installing 500 GW of renewable energy capacity by 2030—one of the five commitments Prime Minister Narendra Modi made during the 2021 Glasgow climate talks.