If there were a choice, South Africa could jettison the ‘dirty’ coal-powered generation for ‘greener’ and ‘cleaner’ renewable options to reduce its carbon footprint. Nonetheless, with renewable power generation system only work in progress, the only practical alternative available was relying on mixture of energy sources – both ‘clean’ and ‘dirty – to power its National Development Plan (NDP) objectives, President Jacob Zuma said in his State of the Nation Address.
Amongst the energy sources which the country was exploring were wind, solar, nuclear, shale gas and coal to meet its requirements, said Zuma. While the government acknowledged the urgency to utilise renewable energy sources, equally, it was aware of the need to attend to some pressing development objectives.
“We are going to explore energy sources in the region to supplement our needs,” revealed Zuma. He told the nation that the government was an advanced stage of exploiting additional energy sources in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).