Coal and nuclear not the best solutions to power crisis: analyst

JOHANNESBURG - Coal or nuclear power stations aren’t the best solutions to resolving South Africa's electricity crisis.

Energy analyst Chris Yelland says these take up to 15 years to build and establish - time we don't have.

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He says independent power producers focused on renewable energy will only be effective within the next three years or so.

He believes the commercial, industrial, mining and agricultural sectors are the next best option.   

Yelland said, "we need new generation capacity, that means more power stations fast…"

"Traditional power stations like coal and nuclear take many years to bring to fruition. A new nuclear station would take about 14 or 15 years so that’s not the solution." 

"In the next three years we need to look at customers of electricity becoming part of the solution. That mean domestic, commercial, industrial, mining, agricultural customers of electricity all becoming part of the solution."

"In Vietnam they put on 9000MW of rooftop Solar pv in the domestic and commercial sectors alone in one year, that shows what can be done by a country that is less developed than SA."