South African construction major Aveng has established a new renewable energy unit within its Engineering & Projects Company (E+PC) and has invested R20-million to position the business for the private-power workflow that is expected to emerge later this year, or during the first half of 2011.
The company will also consider facilitative finance prospects in the power sector on a case-by-case basis.
South Africa’s renewable energy programme has been in a period of hiatus while the authorities have deliberated on ways to overcome policy and regulatory hurdles that persisted despite the publication of renewable energy feed-in tariffs.
However, 1 025 MW of renewable energy capacity has been earmarked for development under the second multiyear tariff determination period, which will endure until the end of March 2013 – in fact, some R12-billion has been set aside for independent power producer capacity over the period.
