Beyondrics, Financial Times

By by Ruona Agbroko

July 26, 2012

South Africa’s latest round of renewable energy contracts has attracted interest from European developers after home subsidies have dried up, but legal uncertainty and rules over local ownership may cut the temper their enthusiasm.

So far the third round of bids for solar and wind projects has seen some developers stop short of a full committment, which is hardly helped by government holdups.

The deadline for bids to supply another chunk of the 3,725MW of renewable energy that South Africa wants to cut its reliance on coal is October 1. From previous rounds, foreign direct investment in renewables is at $12bn in the year to May. There are two further bid rounds slated for April 2013 and July 2014.

DLA Piper Australia and its South African partner DLA Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr have advised more than 50 per cent of the successful bidders in the first two rounds of contracts and are working with companies in their current bids. “The majority of the developers are European based, particularly Italian and Spanish, and there is an increase in interest from German, French, Chinese and US-based developers,” Damian McNair, head of finance and projects for Asia Pacific at DLA Piper told beyondbrics… Read more.