Liquidity constraints and procurement problems continue to impede Eskom’s reliability maintenance recovery (RMR) programme, with CEO Andre de Ruyter reporting that South Africa’s public procurement rules have undercut the utility’s efforts to swiftly appoint the competent contractors needed to undertake the programme. In a briefing hosted during another bout of Stage 4 load-shedding – which is expected to be de-escalated to Stage 3 on Wednesday and then Stage 2 on Friday, before being cancelled entirely over the weekend – De Ruyter said the procurement system “really does not lend itself to this type of maintenance programme”.
UK-based global industrial technology group Rolls-Royce announced late on Monday the creation of a new subsidiary company, Rolls-Royce SMR Limited. This is a special purpose vehicle (SPV) which is focused on the development of Rolls-Royce’s small modular nuclear reactor (SMR) project and the creation of the new entity follows a successful ‘equity raise’ to fund the further development of the project. “[Monday’s] announcement is fantastic news,” enthused Rolls-Royce SMR CEO Tom Samson. “Rolls-Royce SMR has been established to deliver a low cost, deployable, scalable and investable programme of new nuclear power plants. Our transformative approach to delivering nuclear power, based on predictable factory-built components, is unique and the nuclear technology is proven.”
The R130-billion concessional climate finance green deal South Africa signed at COP26 could translate into a R500-billion boost to help South Africa’s just energy transition to decarbonise its sources of energy, says financial services firm RMB CEO James Formby. “We are yet to see the details behind these financial commitments such as the timing and conditions, but overall we are optimistic about the potential substantial decarbonisation benefits for South Africa that will move us closer to globally accepted emission targets.”
Energy and infrastructure focused investment bank Fieldstone has appointed Karèn Breytenbach as senior expert in energy and public-private partnership (PPP) systems.
She has been involved in energy and private investment in public projects over the past quarter century and is renowned for her “ground-breaking” work in South Africa, and even beyond its borders, states Fieldstone in a statement.
If South Africa is unable to secure highly concessional terms from the international partners that have offered $8.5-billion to support the country’s energy transition and to provide social protection for workers and communities associated with the coal value chain, it will not pursue the transaction, an official in The Presidency said on Tuesday. Speaking at an event hosted on the side-lines of COP26, Rudi Dicks, who is programme management officer in the private office of the President, emphasised that no agreement had yet been concluded and that South Africa could still “walk away if we feel that the conditions are too onerous”.
South Africa’s shift away from fossil fuels must generate alternative economic activities in order to avoid coal mining areas such as Mpumalanga becoming “ghost towns”, Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe said on Tuesday. “If we say we must stop fossil fuels, we must find alternative livelihoods,” Mantashe said on the sidelines of the African Energy Week conference in Cape Town.
North West University Business School economist Professor Raymond Parsons has urged that the extent to which the current Eskom load-shedding “now poses an increasing to risk to South Africa’s economic recovery should not be underestimated”. In addition, the current bout of rolling blackouts across the country is also impacting on its growth prospects and job creation.
The Mahlako Energy Fund has announced that its 10 MW solar plant in Kathu, in the Northern Cape, has started commercial operation.
The project marks a milestone in that it is the first large-scale energy wheeling project in South Africa, providing clean energy to Amazon Web Services (AWS) through the Eskom grid.
French nuclear design, engineering, manufacture and construction company Framatome announced on Monday that it had completed its acquisition of Rolls-Royce Civil Nuclear Instrumentation and Control (I&C). This move strengthens Framatome’s worldwide development and deployment capabilities regarding I&C systems. More than 550 staff, who previously worked for Rolls-Royce, are now joining Framatome. Most of them are already based in France, concentrated at Grenoble.
The 60 000 ℓ district heating project at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) Junction student residence continues to exemplify the success of a solar co-generation project, and how a relationship with Austria is being developed through a partnership facilitated by the South African Solar Thermal Training and Demonstration Initiative (Soltrain). Soltrain is funded by the Austrian Development Agency and co-funded by the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries’ Fund for International Development, and is a regional initiative aimed at building capacity and demonstrating the potential of solar thermal systems in the South African Development Community (SADC) region.
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