South Africa's BW6 renewable tender shortlists only 5 solar projects (860 MW)

The South African Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) has appointed five solar PV projects with a combined capacity of 860 MW as "preferred bidders" under Bid Window 6 (BW6) of the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP), namely the 150 MW Kutlwano, 150 MW Boitumelo and 120 MW Doornkop PV projects in the North West and the 240 MW Virginia and 200 MW Good Hope solar park projects in the Free State. A sixth solar PV project has also been identified as eligible and could raise the preferred project capacity to 1,000 MW.

No wind project was selected, despite 23 bids totalling over 4 GW and a specific allocation of 3,200 MW for wind projects. Bidders were required to include a grid-connection Cost Estimate Letter (CEL) from Eskom as part of their bids but they failed to secure grid access, as the indicative capacity available in the Western, Eastern and Northern Cape provinces at the launch of BW6 in April 2022 (around 5 GW) was subsequently reserved by private projects (Eskom has no queueing system for grid access).

The DMRE launched the BW6 of the REIPPPP in April 2022, seeking proposals from independent power producers (IPPs) to develop 2,600 MW of new renewable power capacity, including 1,600 MW of onshore wind and 1,000 MW of solar PV plants. In July 2022, in a context of extreme loadshedding, the proposed volume was doubled to 5,200 MW (3,200 MW for wind and 2,000 MW for solar) and then curtailed to 4,200 MW (3,200 MW wind and 1,000 MW solar) due to the absence of a ministerial determination allowing for more than 1 GW of solar PV capacity to be procured.