South Africa’s renewable energy industry has been given a helping hand with news that the Danish government has earmarked R60-million to metropolitan areas of the country’s local government to pursue renewable energy projects.

The money will not just be used for wind energy but rather for a range of projects including methane gas capture from land fills, said Minister of Minerals and Energy, Buyelwa Sonjica, at the Denmark and South Africa wind energy seminar in Pretoria.

Denmark generates around 27% of its total energy supply from renewable energy sources, the majority of which comes from wind power.

Sonjica said at the seminar that the government’s main goal in developing renewable energy was that support from the industry would promote skills exchange, which would hopefully lead to increased local production capabilities.

“Local production means opening up, not only to local players, but also to allow international players to come in as independent power producers,” said Sonjica.