South Africa is working towards using new technologies that will ensure the country produces electricity with cleaner sources of energy and will thus ensure that electricity is affordable for citizens.
"We are moving away from the traditional conception of electricity using wires, which are very expensive. We are using new technologies... and benefit from the rich solar that we have," Minister of Electricity and Energy, Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, said in Beijing, China.
Addressing members of the media on the sidelines of the South Africa-China Business Forum, the Minister said South Africa can learn about energy generation from Huawei, which is one of the most pre-imminent technology companies in the world.
The Minister is part of the of the delegation that has joined President Cyril Ramaphosa during his State Visit to China.
"We visited Huawei, a major player in the energy ecosystem for modernisation and the optimisation of energy generation. We are able to use their tools to ensure that we deliver electricity to far flung rural areas in a manner that is cheaper and incorporates new sources of energy -- in the main, solar PV [photovoltaic] and wind.
"We are not exploiting the natural resource that we have. It's in abundance in those far-flung areas, so we need to convert that into electricity. What Huawei has done, is it has found cheaper ways of storing electricity, even if the sun is not available," the Minister said.
This will address a number of issues that include energy access and availability.
"This will assist us to do away with load reduction and we have a percentage of our communities that are not connected to electricity. When you look at the prices of electricity, they are prohibitive but solar and wind are available. These are endowments, which are significantly cheaper..." Ramokgopa said.
With the production of solar PV and wind being cheaper, a minimum cost can be considered for communities to contribute to energy generation.
"Because we can get it naturally and its cleaner, it also means we are contributing to the [decarbonisation commitments made in the] Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC).
"There are a number of communities that are not connected to the grid or don't have access to electricity, and retrofitting those who have electricity, we can industrialise on the back of this because we need sufficient demand going forward to localise manufacturing solar PV, battery and invertors.
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"We also need to address other issues, such as issues of skills and employment. We are going to address a multiplicity of issues, which are really transformational and developmental in nature," the Minister said.
Energy generation
Ramokgopa said South Africa's energy generation system is recovering and is in much better health than it was a year ago.
"... We are a in good space. We want to build a sufficient buffer for us to allow the South African economy to grow.
"We want to see the economy grow by 3% in the next two to three years, so it is important that electricity continues to be the anchor of the recovery.
"We continue to make improvements from one day to the other. We will continue to work very hard to ensure that we improve energy generation in the country," the Minister said.
