South32 posts higher manganese, aluminium output from South African operations

Diversified miner South32 has posted a 21% year-on-year increase in manganese output from its South African mines to 2.26-million tonnes for the year ended June 30.

The JSE-, ASX- and LSE-listed miner has a 44% interest in two manganese mines – Mamatwan and Wessels – in South Africa, based in the Kalahari Basin of the Northern Cape province, coupled with a 60% interest in an alloy smelter near Meyerton, in Gauteng.

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Emissions ‘unavoidable’ even if cleanest coal generation technology is used – report

Dr Ranajit Sahu, an engineer with more than three decades of experience in power plant design, has found that large quantities of greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions are “unavoidable”, even if the cleanest available technology is used for new coal-fired power generation. South Africa’s Integrated Resource Plan for Electricity (IRP) 2019 claims that new coal generation capacity will be cleaner because high-efficiency, low-emission (HELE) generation technology will be used, although it does not state which kind.
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UK Climate Investments fulfils commitment, investing R500m in African renewables fund

Pilot investment programme UK Climate Investments on August 18 fulfilled its cornerstone commitment of R500-million to help establish Africa’s first dedicated renewable energy yieldco, which is managed by majority black-owned fund manager Revego Fund Managers. Revego aims to tackle the challenge of a lack of access to electricity in sub-Saharan Africa, and accelerate the deployment of new clean electricity generation capacity by acquiring equity in operational renewable energy projects across the region, helping developers unlock and recycle capital.
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Committee pleased Sasol is complying with air-quality obligations

The Portfolio Committee on Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment says it is generally satisfied with the compliance of chemicals company Sasol with its obligations on air quality; however, State-owned power utility Eskom is not complying with its obligations owing to delays encountered in its air-quality offset programme. This information comes from briefings received by the committee from the Department of Health on August 17 on the cost of air pollution in South Africa, as well as from Eskom and Sasol on their purported non-compliance with the environmental laws. 
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De Ruyter outlines green reindustrialisation vision for South Africa

Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter has outlined the case for leveraging South Africa’s transition to green energy to reverse the country’s “vicious cycle of deindustrialisation and unemployment” and to trigger a “virtuous cycle of local demand for local goods to create investment and jobs”. Delivering the Dr Hendrik Johannes van der Bijl Memorial Lecture during a virtual event hosted by the University of Pretoria and the South African Academy of Engineering, De Ruyter rejected the notion of South Africa abandoning manufacturing in favour of commodity exports and services.
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Nersa signals intent to treat sub-100 MW registration as ‘administrative’ process

The National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) is still analysing the implications that a recent amendment to Schedule 2 of the Electricity Regulation Act, exempting grid-tied generation facilities below 100 MW from licensing, will have on its processes, rules and guidelines. However, fulltime regulatory member responsible for electricity Nhlanhla Gumede reports that Nersa views such registration primarily as an administrative process, rather than one where it will be expected to apply its regulatory discretion. Speaking during a Power Future Labs webinar on the implications of the reform, which was gazetted by Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe on August 12, Gumede said that approvals were likely to be delegated to Nersa officials rather than having the Energy Regulator deliberate on them at its formal meetings.
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Engineering bursary launched with a solar PV focus

Solar technology and engineering expert Sola has launched its first engineering bursary. The bursary will pay for the tuition of a final-year electrical engineering student and provide them with a job opportunity as a graduate engineer in the solar photovoltaic (PV) field.
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Sasol’s new 2030 and 2050 decarbonisation targets to be ‘substantially higher’

South Africa’s carbon-heavy fuels and chemicals group Sasol is poised to announce a “substantially higher” target for the reduction of its greenhouse-gas emissions following an intensive period of financial and organisational restructuring during its 2021 financial year. The JSE-listed group took far-reaching actions – including selling $3.8-billion-worth of assets, slashing capital expenditure (capex) and securing savings of more than $2-billion – to deleverage its unsustainable balance sheet without resorting to the $2-billion rights issue initially mooted.
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AfDB finalises $20m off-grid recovery platform financing agreements

Development finance institution the African Development Bank (AfDB) has reached financial close on financing agreements for a $20-million of concessional investment from the Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa (Sefa) for the Covid-19 Off-Grid Recovery Platform (CRP). The five-year, $50-million CRP blended finance initiative is designed to provide relief and recovery capital to energy access businesses, supporting them through and beyond the pandemic, the bank said on August 15.
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New renewable projects should be built in the Western Cape, North West, Free State or Limpopo – …

The recent Generation Connection Capacity Assessment (GCCA) report published by State-owned power utility Eskom shows there is limited available capacity for renewable energy capacity to be connected to the Northern Cape grid, says renewable independent power producer Scatec sub-Saharan Africa GM Jan Fourie. Developers of new solar photovoltaic (PV) or wind projects should rather consider developing infrastructure in other provinces such as the Western Cape, North West, Free State or Limpopo.
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