Second phase of the Strategic Environmental Assessment for the identification of Renewable Energy Development Zones

Abstract

In response to the 2013 National Development Plan, eighteen Strategic Integrated Projects (SIPs) were identified to support economic development and address service delivery in the country. SIP 8 focused on sustainable green energy initiatives and in 2015 a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) for the effective and efficient roll-out of large scale wind and solar photovoltaic developments was completed. The SEA, however, identified eight large Renewable Energy Development Zones (REDZs). These were seen to be too large with too many environmentally sensitive features inside them. Consequently, in late 2016, phase 2 of the wind and solar photovoltaic SEA was commissioned to identify finer scale REDZ with updated resource and environmental datasets. This presentation focuses on the analyses, data sets and approach followed to identify the finer scale REDZs. We will be looking at the process undertaken to identify these areas as well as how the different factors were used in the analyses.