South Africa will connect 7,000MW of renewable power to its grid by mid this year, when the first 47 projects become fully operational, the Energy Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson told the Parliament, Reuters reported.

Although still heavily dependent on fossil fuels, South Africa has been quietly creating one of the world’s most progressive alternative energy plans, The Guardian wrote. Solar, biomass and wind energy systems are popping up all over the country and feeding clean energy into the strained electrical grid.

The Cookhouse wind farm is the biggest wind system built in Africa, with 66 turbines generating 138MW of clean power. It started feeding the grid at the end of 2014 and it is far from unique.

In addition, the minister said that the country, that has turned to solar and wind power to plug electricity shortages, hopes to install 9,600MW of nuclear power in the next 15 years, but the cost of the project estimated at about $100b has raised budgetary concerns.