Investing in renewable energy could be a cost-effective solution for South Africa, dependent on coal for more than 90 percent of its power generation, a World Wildlife Foundation report said on Thursday.
South Africa plans to generate some 15 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020, but progress has been slow, with a wind farm of only 100 MW in new projects committed to so far.
WWF Climate Change Program Manager Richard Worthington said South Africa could loose credibility it has earned for being one of the most active among developing countries in fighting climate change if it did not follow through on targets.
"We risk having to live with ever-increasing fuel prices and the possibility of international penalties or trade barriers for South African exports manufactured with dirty energy," he said.
Abundant in sunlight and wind, solar thermal and wind energy would be the most promising technologies to bet on, he said.
"We have so much potential; we just need to count the costs to see why and how we can mobilize investments," he said.
South Africa appealed to the United Nations at a recent climate seminar in Poland to help fund environmentally-friendly technologies to replace its coal-fired plants.
Worthington said that in addition to international funding and subsidies, South Africa can use a feed-in tariff and tradable renewable energy certificates to make it affordable.
If coupled with efficiency measures, it could help it save money, cutting electricity costs to 18 percent below the cost of a coal-fired plant.
South Africa's utility Eskom has been rationing electricity since early last year when the national grid nearly collapsed, owing to a rise in demand and a lack of investment in new power generation capacity.
Eskom has since launched a 343 billion rand ($34.40 billion) new power investment program, with two 4,800 MW coal-fired power plants due to come on stream in 2015 and 2016.
The utility has long argued that coal was the cheapest and fastest way to add new megawatts to the grid, but analysts and think tanks argue that renewable energies can be a more sustainable and cheaper option in the end.
South Africa is due to convene policy makers and industry stakeholders at a climate change summit next week, ahead of the U.N. climate change conference in Copenhagen later in March.
