The recently released details regarding the Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) 2025 have been welcomed by the South African wind energy sector. The new IRP provided for 34 000 MW of onshore wind generation capacity by 2039.

“I think the IRP is a great step forward,” affirmed local renewable-energy company Seriti Green CEO Peter Venn. “Wind projects take nine years to put on the grid and then 20 to 25 years to operate.”

“[We] welcome the IRP that has been published,” stated local investment holding company Reatile Group chief commercial officer Sunette Smith. “It’s good to see that we’ll be seeing growth, [and] growth in the right direction.”

Enertrag South Africa CEO Enos Banda highlighted that the IRP 2025 gave the industry the confidence to “step up your ambition”. (Enertrag is a Germany-based multinational renewable-energy group.)

“We’re aligning with the rest of the world,” pointed out ib vogt MD South Africa Mercia Grimbeek. “It comes down to the practicality of implementing it. That’s the challenge.” (ib vogt is also a Germany-based renewable-energy multinational.)

“We should be working collaboratively, with government, with Eskom,” urged South African renewable-energy company Anthem CEO James Cumming. “There’s enough [in the IRP] for everyone.”

The most immediate issue requiring collaboration, Cumming continued, was “curtailment”. This procedure, recently approved by the National Energy Regulator of South Africa, would allow the development of renewable-energy projects in parts of the country where the transmission grid was constrained. 

Curtailment was especially important for the wind industry in the Western Cape and Eastern Cape provinces, he observed. But it was something that was not easy to implement.

“The area of greatest cooperation is collaboration at the point below high-voltage (HV) MTS [main transmission substations],” affirmed Banda. Globally, there was a move to a system whereby the various types of renewable energy were connected with each other and then jointly collected to the grid. “Grid optimisation below the HV level is going to be a critical enabler of renewables.”

(They all participated in a panel discussion at the Windaba 2025 conference, on Wednesday. The conference is being held at the Cape Town International Convention Centre.)