UPDATE 1-SAfrica's Eskom mulls solar for next baseload plant

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MIDRAND, South Africa, March 4 (Reuters) - South Africa's state-owned electricity company Eskom [ESCJ.UL] sees a "big chance" that its next baseload power plant would come from solar thermal energy, not coal, an official said on Wednesday.

Eskom's Climate Change and Sustainability Manager Mandy Rambharos said the utility would take a final decision on the investment by September.

"There's a big chance that the next baseload plant would come from solar thermal," she said on the sidelines of a climate change summit.

Rambharos also said Eskom is in talks with the World Bank to help fund the pilot plant, which could provide 100 MW at a cost of 6 billion rand ($572 million).

Eskom supplies 95 percent of South Africa's electricity, 90 percent of which is generated by coal. The utility has been the target of criticism by environmental groups who say Eskom and the government have been slow to diversify the energy mix and limit its climate change impact. Eskom emitted 224 million tonnes of CO2 in 2008, about half of the country's total emissions.

Rambharos said costs and lack of adequate policies were to blame for limited progress, and stressed Eskom strives to balance climate change concerns with the need to produce extra megawatts fast to ease a chronic power shortage.

Eskom has been rationing electricity since early last year when the national grid nearly collapsed, forcing mines to shut down for days and costing the economy billions of dollars.

Eskom has launched a 343 billion rand new power investment programme, with two 4,800 MW coal-fired power plants due to come on stream in 2015 and 2016.

Eskom has for some time been saying the next baseload plant will come from coal because resources are widely available, but Rambharos said the utility was doing feasibility studies to make baseload power from solar a reality.

"Funders don't want to take the technology risk because there has never been built a 100 MW solar thermal plant before ... that's why we are speaking to the World Bank's Clean Technology Fund, because they will take the risk to fund the pilot plant," she said. (Reporting by Agnieszka Flak; editing by Sue Thomas)