Abstract
South Africa is being confronted with an irregular power supply, leading to persistent load shedding due to aged and unreliable coal-fired power plants. Connected with coal as a generating source for electricity from fossil fuels are environmental concerns such as emissions of greenhouse gases and climate change impacts. Nuclear energy can allay the country’s dependence on coal as a source of energy. This article, therefore, reviews the feasibility of nuclear energy using a multicriteria analysis technique. A combination of Strengths, weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) analysis and Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) was used to evaluate the external and internal factors that could either positively or negatively affect the country’s nuclear energy expansion drive. From the analysis, the country’s enabling laws and regulatory framework recorded the highest score of 39.2% under the strengths for the sector. In the case of the weaknesses, the high cost of construction and long construction framework recorded the highest weight, of 50.47%. Energy export and demand under the opportunities recorded a weight of 52.09%, ranking it as the highest opportunity for the sector. Seismic events were identified as the biggest threat for nuclear power expansion in the country, and the experts assigned a weight of 42.5% to this factor.
Highlights
South Africa is ranked as the fifth most populous country in Africa, and the recent projection in 2019 estimates the population at 58.5 million [1]
This study adopted a multicriteria decision-making approach, i.e., the SWOT analysis approach, which is an acronym for strengths, weaknesses, threats, and opportunities, and the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) to scrutinize the disposition of
Some include a study by Kamran et al [24], which applied the SWOT technique in evaluating the empowerment of the renewable energy sector in Pakistan
Summary
South Africa is ranked as the fifth most populous country in Africa, and the recent projection in 2019 estimates the population at 58.5 million [1]. The abundance of coal and the well-established infrastructure have allowed the country to generate electricity at a cheaper cost when compared to the infrastructural development of other energy sources [3]. This has not translated to the total availability of energy to all its citizens. In 2018, it was estimated that more than 1.5 million households, representing about 5 million South Africans, are still without electricity [4]. It is expected that the electricity demand will increase from 245 TWh in 2015 to 522 TWh in 2050, representing an annual growth rate of 2.3% [5]
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