This briefing note is a follow-up publication to our 2022 series of reports on resolving South Africa’s power crisis. The evidence presented in this work demonstrates that despite the significant increase in load shedding in 2022 (8.1 TWh of unserved energy vs 1.8 TWh in 2021), an additional 5 GW of additional renewable energy capacity would have eliminated 71% of load shedding. When combining this additional renewable energy capacity with the lifting of diesel supply constraints to the Open Cycle Gas Turbines (insufficient storage, high cost of diesel and equivocal support from NERSA and National Treasury) it would have been possible to resolve up to 92% of load shedding, whilst adding just 12% to the 2022 diesel budget.
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