Warren Williams
South Africa’s plans to buy emergency power, already the subject of a court challenge, faces fresh controversy after a local-content requirement for solar-panel frames was scrapped subsequent to the award of the tenders.
The 65% local-content requirement on aluminium frames for photovoltaic panels was waived by the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition on 12 May. That followed an application by ARTsolar, which along with a local unit of China’s Seraphim Solar will be the only beneficiaries of the exemption.
The two companies will now be able to sell panels to some of the winners of contracts to supply emergency power to the national grid. The preferred bidders were named in March and they must conclude funding arrangements and regulatory requirements by the end of July for their contracts to come into force.