South African (SA) government says it is counting on renewable energy to significantly lower the country’s soaring electricity costs following the official launch of ‘Eskom Green’.

The newly unveiled platform is a dedicated branch of the power utility designed entirely to house Eskom’s clean energy business. Its core mandate is to rapidly accelerate the deployment of solar, wind, and green hydrogen technologies across the country.

Speaking at the launch, Electricity and Energy Minister Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa cautioned that the aggressive push for green energy does not mean traditional coal-powered generation will vanish overnight. Pointing to past mistakes, Ramokgopa noted that shutting down traditional plants too quickly can devastate local communities.

“We have lessons that we can learn from Komati,” Ramokgopa said, referring to the early retirement of the Komati Power Station. “Gross injustice, that’s an example of a decision taken without due consideration of its overall impact and just pursuing a narrow agenda of just removing and addressing the emissions without understanding the totality of the impact.”

However, he maintained that a cleaner grid will ultimately bring financial relief to struggling SA consumers.

“The working theory is the more you have renewables, which are relatively cheaper, it will have an impact on the pricing and it’s going to arrest the exponential price of electricity,” Ramokgopa added.

–ChannelAfrica–