Durban – With load shedding affecting residents and businesses, the eThekwini Municipality has clarified its position on alternative energy.
The municipality said that in June 2021, the eThekwini Municipal council adopted the Energy Transition Policy for the eThekwini municipal area after a robust stakeholder engagement process.
Most importantly, the key strategy documents that informed the development of the eThekwini Energy Transition Policy were also subjected to a similar rigorous stakeholder engagement process prior to the policy statements being adopted, the municipality said.
“The Council adopted Energy Transition Policy does not have nuclear power anywhere in its implementation pipeline,” the municipality said.
“Furthermore, one of the strategic documents referred to above, the Integrated Resource Plan, makes it very clear that nuclear power is one energy source that eThekwini Municipality will not be considering for many reasons. This is the position of the municipality on the matter of nuclear power. ”
In June, former KwaZulu-Natal premier Sihle Zikalala said as they dealt with the long-term response to climate change, the provincial executive council endorsed the eThekwini Municipality council’s aspiration to procure new generation capacity from independent power producers (IPP) in line with the determination of the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy.
“In terms of these plans, eThekwini aims to achieve at least 15% of heating requirements using hydrogen as feedstock by 2030. Furthermore, the city wants to achieve (an) industrial transformation of 15% in petrochemical, pulp and paper, cement, iron smelters, agriculture and gas imports infrastructure by 2030,” Zikalala said.
“With regard to the Transport Transition, eThekwini aims to increase the uptake of electric vehicles by 6% annually from 2025 to 2050, and to decarbonise transport by introducing fuel cell electric vehicles and gas.
“The Power Transition will see the achievement by 2030 of the goal of only 40% reliance on the national grid, with the objective of attaining 100% penetration of alternate energy by 2050,” Zikalala explained.
Daily News