German solar giant pulls plug on SA

Drifter

Drifter

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Germany's SMA Solar – the world's biggest manufacturer of solar power inverters, a critical component in solar power systems – is closing shop in SA, citing government's lack of commitment to renewable energy.

The company opened its multimillion-rand manufacturing facility in Cape Town in 2014. The facility includes a production line and quality test centre for SMA's Sunny Central inverters, warehousing, as well as the African branch of the SMA Solar Academy training centre.

The closure comes after Eskom's decision to no longer sign power purchase agreements with private producers after the current round is finalised.
Speaking to ITWeb this morning, Thorsten Ronge, MD of SMA Solar SA, confirmed the company was shutting down the production of solar power inverters at the Cape Town facility. He said only the sales team will remain in the country.

According to Ronge, SMA Solar established the manufacturing plant following the introduction of the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPP). The programme, which has widely been hailed as a success worldwide, called for 3 725MW of renewable energy technologies.

More... http://www.itweb.co.za/index.php?op...le&id=154993&A=FIN&S=Financial&O=E&E=3-165383
 
Let me guess, they didn't go for the corrupt tenders and sweet local deals that were on offer from the ANC...
 
Oh boy that's not good, it's like closing the future in certain aspects.
The closure comes after Eskom's decision to no longer sign power purchase agreements with private producers after the current round is finalised.
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- sounds as if the government/anc wanted more of the pie before they put pen to paper
 
gg ANC more jobs and investment gone, well done *slow clap*
 
Perhaps the fact that they also priced themselves out of the market was also a factor? Their products are much cheaper in europe and usa than here.
 
Seriously??

Last month at TIH in Joburg, I was being invited to look at solar projects by the Government - funded 75% by the government ..... now this?

Left hand doesnt know what the right hand is doing :(
 
LazyLion said:
Let me guess, they didn't go for the corrupt tenders and sweet local deals that were on offer from the ANC...
Click to expand...

More likely the other way around. These green nazis make demands and expect everyone to jump.

"government's lack of commitment to renewable energy" translates to something like "we demand government subsidies to make our snake oil economically sustainable".
 
LazyLion said:
Let me guess, they didn't go for the corrupt tenders and sweet local deals that were on offer from the ANC...
Click to expand...

Hemi300c said:
Oh boy that's not good, it's like closing the future in certain aspects.
- sounds as if the government/anc wanted more of the pie before they put pen to paper
Click to expand...

ellyally said:
gg ANC more jobs and investment gone, well done *slow clap*
Click to expand...

This is a bit misleading, other articles about this do not mention this as a reason at all. For example:
PV inverter manufacturer SMA Solar Technology said it would close production facilities in Denver, US, and Cape Town, South Africa on continued competition issues and consolidate global inverter production in Germany and China.
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http://www.pv-tech.org/news/sma-solar-consolidates-inverter-production-in-germany-and-china

“The market has undergone a significant change in the past weeks,” Pierre-Pascal Urbon, the chief executive of SMA Solar, told Handelsblatt. The price of photovoltaic inverters has “slid massively” because the Chinese solar market has collapsed, Mr. Urbon said.
In response, SMA Solar has announced another round of layoffs after deep cuts in 2015. The company is closing its second-largest factory in Denver, Colorado – which employees nearly 300 people – and a smaller plant in Capetown, South Africa. By the middle of 2017, SMA Solar will downsize from 3,500 to 2,900 employees.
The company is also selling its railway technology division, where a team of 65 employees manufacturing power inverters for trains and subway systems.
Click to expand...
https://global.handelsblatt.com/edi...nies-markets/article/no-sunshine-at-sma-solar
 
Nuclear power that will financially ruin the youth of today is the only option according to the ANC - so the attitude towards renewable energy is expected.
 
Let's unpack this a little bit.
The market for manufacturing PV inverters locally is driven by the Department of Energy's local content threshold requirements in their Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP). Due to the competitive nature of bidding process, only large projects that benefit from economies of scale are being procured under this framework. This is why this facility was only manufacturing the central inverters (which are rated at around 1MVA) and not the string inverters (around 3-50 KVA).
Lets also just clarify at this point that this facility was more an assembly line than a manufacturing facility. All the core components were being imported and assembled by local labour.
The REIPPPP awards around 450 MW of solar PV in each of their bidding rounds. As I mentioned above these projects are as large as possible (which is limited at 75 MW in the REIPPPP framework), thus only about 6 PV projects are awarded preferred bidder status each year.
This means that PV plant component manufacturers (including inverter manufacturers) are desperate to get a piece of the action; however, it does not make sense financially to keep a factory (assembly line) up and running without any orders.
I've met with many different inverter manufacturers, including Thorsten Ronge, and when asked about their local content capabilities, the answer is always the same, order from us and we will setup a factory and achieve xx% local content.
One should also consider that a large (75 MW) PV project near Prieska utilising SMA inverters has recently finished construction. They have assembled, delivered, and installed all of their inverters and spare inverters to the project and now are sitting with an idle factory.
Should SMA receive more orders they will likely reopen their facility and resume assembly operations.
One last point, quotations for inverters are dependent on local content percentages. The higher the local content, the more expensive. Just because it is made locally does not mean it is cheaper. It means having to have another factory, more workers, getting new local procurement of parts contracts in place etc.
 
I think this more a case of Eskom looking after its own interests (understandably) than ANC corruption. As Eskom's own power stations come on stream they feel less inclined to support competitor power producers (the private producers).
 
Azg said:
I think this more a case of Eskom looking after its own interests (understandably) than ANC corruption. As Eskom's own power stations come on stream they feel less inclined to support competitor power producers (the private producers).
Click to expand...

This is where I believe we have a structural Problem.

Eskom should be split into 2, an Electrical Transmission and Supply Company "EskomTran", and a Electrical generation Company "EskomGen".

So "EskomTran" would negotiate to purchase power from any supplier, ship it via its transmission network and Sell it to any customer - Municipalities, Bulk users etc, on a Cost Plus model.

"EskomGen" would be one of the suppliers to "EskomTran" competing on price, continuity and efficiency of supply.

Over time a second transmission company may arise.
 
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