![Pinterest](https://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https://uknews.evprotec.com/why-south-africa-will-struggle-to-wean-itself-off-coal/&media=https://uknews.evprotec.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/AA13QMw1.jpeg&description=South Africa is hugely reliant on coal for its energy but one of the country's biggest problems is frequent power-cuts. So how can it reduce its use of fossil fuels and switch to greener sources, while at the same time increasing its supply of electricity? © AFP South Africa's large coal sector provides about 80% of the country's energy needs © BBC The precariousness of South Africa's national electricity grid was highlighted in a single tweet by the state-owned power company Eskom one morning last month. Before many people had even had a chance to eat breakfast, the newsflash read: "Stage four loadshedding was implemented at 05:30 due to breakdowns of five generators at five power stations overnight." Despite being Africa's most developed economy, the country has been experiencing load-shedding - or an organised series of rolling blackouts - for the past 15 years. But this outage felt like something new. Five units at five different power stations simultaneously suffering breakdowns is an indication of the fragility of the electricity infrastructure and shocked many. "This is scary because you cannot have five units at five power stations failing overnight. What was happening?" asks energy expert Lungile Mashele. "Your units are a reflection of how they are maintained… They tell a story that Eskom is not resilient, that Eskom has not been doing the necessary maintenance and that all interventions that they have been putting in place over the last couple of years have come to nought," she tells the BBC. Eskom has 14 coal-fired power stations, which produce around 80% of the country's power. Most of them are old, inefficient and prone to breakdowns.The two newer coal-fired power stations, whose construction started in 2007, are plagued by cost overruns and design flaws and are still not operating at capacity.As a result of all these problems, South Africa has a shortfall of around 4,000-6,000MW of power every day - about 10% of current use. The resulting blackouts ar){kind=link}
South Africa is hugely reliant on coal for its energy but one of the country’s biggest problems is frequent power-cuts. So how can it reduce its use of fossil fuels and switch to greener sources, while at the same time increasing its supply of electricity?
The precariousness of South Africa’s national electricity grid was highlighted in a single tweet by the state-owned power company Eskom one morning last month.
Before many people had even had a chance to eat breakfast, the newsflash read: “Stage four loadshedding was implemented at 05:30 due to breakdowns of five generators at five power stations overnight.”
Despite being Africa’s most developed economy, the country has been experiencing load-shedding – or an organised series of rolling blackouts – for the past 15 years. But this outage felt like something new.
Five units at five different power stations simultaneously suffering breakdowns is an indication of the fragility of the electricity infrastructure and shocked many.