Floating power ships one step closer to reality in South Africa

South Africa’s environment ministry dismissed a complaint by a nonprofit against Karpowership’s plan to moor a ship-mounted power plant off the nation’s west coast, a rare win for the Turkish company.

The Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, in a letter to The Green Connection dated April 26, rejected the nonprofit’s allegations that Karpowership’s consultants misrepresented small-scale fishers.

The nonprofit said to Bloomberg in March that it called on the competent authority to suspend the pending application for environmental authorization and to fully investigate this allegation.

The department will go ahead and review the company’s proposal to set up a 320-megawatt plant in Saldanha port, according to the letter provided by the consultants.

Karpowership won a tender in March 2021 to provide 1,200 megawatts of electricity but has since been mired in lawsuits and environmental challenges. The ministry has 57 days to decide on the company’s Saldanha application. Two of its other applications have been rejected.

A shortage of generation capacity in South Africa has led to rotational blackouts — known locally as load shedding — that are implemented for as long as 12 hours a day.

This development follows various setbacks for the project; on 8 March, the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment rejected the appeal to moor a ship-mounted power plant capable of generating about 450 megawatts at the Coega harbour in the Eastern Cape province.

South Africa’s energy minister, Gwede Mantashe, has repeatedly said that the Karpowership should be allowed to proceed with its plans.

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Floating power ships one step closer to reality in South Africa