South Africa to add 7,000 MW of renewable power to grid by mid-2016

CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - South Africa will connect 7,000 megawatts (MW) of renewable power to its grid by mid this year when the first 47 projects become fully operational, the energy minister said on Wednesday. Africa's most industrialised country has turned to solar and wind power to plug electricity shortages, Tina Joemat-Pettersson told parliament. She also reiterated that the planned nuclear expansion would be "corruption free". South Africa hopes to install 9,600 megawatts of nuclear power in the next 15 years to address chronic electricity shortages but the cost of the project estimated at about $100 billion has raised budgetary concerns. (Reporting by Wendell Roelf; Editing by James Macharia)