Vivo Energy, Robex to set up a solar plant at Mali mine

Canadian mining company Robex Resources and Vivo Energy, which sells and distributes Shell- and Engen-branded fuels and lubricants in Africa, have reached an agreement for Vivo Energy to supply solar energy to the Nampala gold mine, in Mali, for a period of five to fifteen years. The project will result in the construction of a 3.9 MW solar photovoltaic power plant, with a battery storage capacity of 2.6 MWh which, owing to the energy management system, will be fully integrated into the mine’s existing thermal power plant.
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Municipal power procurement trickier than just getting the go-ahead from Minister

Although national government has opened the door for municipalities to procure electricity from independent power producers (IPPs), a lot of “regulatory ironing out” still needs to happen before power purchase agreements (PPAs) can be signed.

In May last year, the Energy Minister gave permission for the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) to licence 500 MW of small-scale embedded generation (SSEG) projects, sized between 1 MW and 10 MW, without the need for the Minister to sign it off.

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Industrial investment will flow if South Africa ‘consistently’ builds 1.6 GW of wind yearly

Leading wind-energy project developers and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) are convinced that South Africa’s plan to install 1.6 GW of new wind capacity yearly until 2030 is more than sufficient to attract large-scale industrial investment. These captains of industry warn, however, that the country will need to back-up the policy certainty currently being provided by the Integrated Resource Plan 2019 (IRP2019) with consistent implementation.
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Lower renewables costs driving up demand – Windaba panel

Renewables remain the lowest-cost source of new power generation in most parts of the world, with prices continuing to decline and making it a promising sector for development in most countries.

The price of onshore wind, for example, declined from $86/MWh in 2009 to $53/MWh in 2019, representing a 40% decline in the last ten years, states Danish Energy Agency energy adviser Andrea Isidori.

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South Africa’s cities to switch to solar as power monopoly ends

South Africa’s biggest cities are preparing to source their own power after the energy ministry this month approved letting them wean themselves off the state utility that’s subjected cities to outages for the past 13 years.
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IDC aims to ‘catalyse’ recovery plan, but won’t go it alone as impairments bite

The Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) – which reported a R3.8-billion loss for the 2019/20 financial year, driven by a surge in impairments from R4.8-billion to R9.6-billion – has revised its investment strategy with the aim of “catalysing” government’s Reconstruction and Recovery Plan through risk-sharing partnerships with private and public co-financiers. CEO TP Nchocho stressed that the State-owned development finance institution (DFI) would continue to operate at the “upper end of the risk spectrum” in supporting the plan,  announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa on October 15 and which included strong infrastructure, industrial, energy and agricultural components.
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Nxuba Wind Farm starts generation, delivery of energy

With the commissioning of the final wind turbine at the 140 MW Nxuba Wind Farm in the Eastern Cape, Enel Green Power (EGP) has started with the generation and delivery of energy. The company says this is despite challenges attributed to Covid-19 containment measures and national lockdown.
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UCT research unit shares considerations for REIPPPP going forward

Power auctions are fast becoming the dominant procurement method for renewable energy globally, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, but it is not without its crucial requirements for success.

University of Cape Town (UCT) specialist research unit Power Futures Lab research fellow Wikus Kruger on the first day of the annual Windaba conference hosted virtually on October 26 discussed global trends in renewable energy auctions and what this means for South Africa’s Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP).

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Nuclear regulator confirms early talks with Eskom to extend Koeberg nuclear plant’s life 

The National Nuclear Regulator (NNR) has confirmed that it is in preliminary talks with State-owned national electricity utility Eskom regarding extending the operating life of the country’s only nuclear power plant (NPP) at Koeberg, north of Cape Town. Currently, Koeberg is licensed by the NNR to operate until 2024. Eskom wishes to extend the NPP’s operating life by 20 years, and informed the NNR of this in July. The utility will make its formal application to the NNR for a license for ‘Long …
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‘Great opportunity’ to tap Mpumalanga’s grid capacity for just transition – IPP Office

The extension of South Africa’s Renewable Energy Development Zones (REDZs) to areas where coal jobs are at risk, but where grid capacity is available, represents a “great opportunity” to connect new renewable-energy generators while also supporting a just transition for coal workers, a senior official at the Independent Power Producer Office (IPPO) argued on Monday. Speaking during the virtual opening of the 2020 edition of Windaba, IPPO head of technical Pervalan Govender noted that government had hitherto not drawn on the REDZs framework, through which 11 geographical areas, including the coal region of Emalahleni, in Mpumalanga, had been earmarked for the clustering of wind and solar plants.
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