Archive for date: October 2nd, 2020

The City of Cape Town, which has been pushing for the right of municipalities to procure electricity directly from independent power producers (IPPs) for several years, is currently compiling what it describes as a “mini” integrated resource plan (IRP) to guide its future procurement decisions and actions. Energy and climate change executive director Kadri Nassiep reports that the city has contracted the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research to develop the mini IRP, which he says should be completed within six to eight months.

Using microgrids offers an ideal platform for renewable-energy sources, such as wind energy, to be used more extensively, says turnkey energy project solutions provider SEM Solutions national sales manager Tiaan Hendriks. Renewable-energy sources, such as wind and solar photovoltaic (PV) energy, cannot be solely relied on for constant energy supply, as such an exclusive reliance on renewable-energy sources can result in intermittent energy supply, he adds.

As engineering solutions provider Zest WEG’s holding company, Brazil-based WEG, is already well-established in the wind energy sector in South America, Zest WEG is developing its own momentum in this segment locally. According to Zest WEG integrated solutions executive Alastair Gerrard, the role of WEG in wind energy has grown well beyond supplying generators to other original-equipment manufacturers (OEMs). Having developed its own direct drive, gearless wind turbine with a technology partner, and then acquiring that business in 2016, WEG is now a “turbine OEM with ambition”.

The failure of the R536-million DCD Wind Towers facility, established in the Coega Special Economic Zone in 2013, has become the poster child for the damage inflicted when South Africa’s political infighting and intrigue gives way to policy uncertainty and stalled implementation. The investment made sense on several levels: it was aligned  with the global energy transition; it created 140 manufacturing jobs in an economy desperate to re-industrialise; it was established to produce a key component for a sector whose growth was underpinned by the country’s official electricity policy; it served a market growing in confidence in light of the international acclaim being showered on the procurement model facilitating its expansion; the activity was supported by an industrial policy that sought to unlock green manufacturing; and it had the financial backing of the State-owned Industrial Development Corporation and the province-owned Coega Development Corporation.

Energy project solutions provider UL has released a beta version of its Wind Resource Assessment Platform (WRAP) software, after the company began development on the wind energy yield assessment software last year. Released to market in June this year, UL renewable energy VP Michael Brower says WRAP ensures that the company is ideally equipped to support the local growing wind energy industry.