RENEWABLE ENERGY FACILITIES: GOOD NEWS FOR ENVIRONMENTAL AUTHORISATION EXCLUSION APPLICANTS?

Please note: On 4 December 2023, the Department of Forestry, Fisheries & the Environment issued a notice confirming that ‘a letter of consent from Eskom or its successor’ is required when applying for an environmental authorisation to develop a renewable energy facility within a certain radius of a main electricity distribution or transmission substation.

The Department of Forestry, Fisheries & the Environment has gazetted a notice calling for input by 27 August 2023 on a proposed amendment to environmental authorisation exclusion application requirements affecting renewable energy facilities.

It is envisaged that adding a letter of consent from Eskom to the existing application requirements would ‘ensure unrestricted access to main electricity transmission or distribution substations’, facilitating the realisation of an investment’s full economic potential.

The move follows two last year intended to facilitate the process of adding energy generation capacity to the national grid.

One excluded certain specified and listed activities necessary for expanding power line and substation infrastructure from the requirement to obtain environmental authorisation – subject to certain conditions.

The other called for public comment on proposals for excluding solar photovoltaic installation development and expansion from the same requirement. A second set of proposals was gazetted in April 2023, as SA Legal Academy reported at the time.

Published by SA Legal Academy Policy Watch

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