DNG welcomes postponement of hearing into Karpowership’s RMIPPPP award

Gas-to-power solutions provider DNG Energy has welcomed the decision of the Hight Court in Pretoria to grant its request for the postponement of an application to have the selection of Karpowership South Africa as a preferred bidder in the Risk Mitigation Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (RMIPPPP) set aside. DNG embarked on legal action in April, alleging corruption in the bidding process. Karpowership and the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy have denied the allegations.
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Policy improvements needed to scale up global wind energy installations – GWEC

While offshore wind capacity grew steadily in 2020, the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) advises that governments will need to act decisively to improve policy in order to scale up installations at the pace required to help the world meet its carbon emissions targets and avoid the worst effects of global warming. According to the GWEC’s flagship ‘Global Offshore Wind Report 2021’, launched on September 9, the global offshore wind industry installed 6.1 GW of capacity in 2020, down slightly from a record 6.24 GW installed in 2019.
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World nuclear energy use to grow over next 20 years, requiring increased uranium mining

The World Nuclear Association (WNA) has forecast that worldwide nuclear energy generation capacity will grow by 2.6% a year over the next 20 years. The prediction is contained in the WNA publication The Nuclear Fuel Report: Global Scenarios for Demand and Supply Availability 2021-2040, which was launched on Thursday. Currently, nuclear energy produces some 10% of global electricity, but the role of nuclear is expected to grow, because it is a near-zero carbon emissions technology. In capacity terms, as of the middle of this year, nuclear provided 394 GWe, generated by 442 reactors. Another 60 GWe of capacity, or 57 reactors, was currently under construction.
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Eskom unbundling fails to cut solvency risk, Futuregrowth says

Futuregrowth Asset Management said that despite efforts to make South Africa’s Eskom Holdings profitable, including a process of unbundling its divisions into separate entities, “the core problem of debt” has yet to be addressed. The utility that reported a fourth straight full-year loss on Aug. 31 has very high finance costs on a debt pile of about R400-billion. Eskom expects to separate its transmission division from the utility by the end of the year, with generation and distribution units to follow in 2022.
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Senegal starts clock on $550m US grant to boost power supply

Senegal has completed reforms that will unlock a five-year grant of $550-million from the United States that will help build high-voltage power transmission lines and substations to boost access to electricity. The grant from the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), the U.S. government’s main development fund, will enable Senegal to address critical problems in the power sector, Mahmoud Bah, acting chief executive officer of the MCC, told Reuters.
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New Trade idea for South Africa is debt relief for climate goals

Politicians and academics are turning their attention to a new trade pitch for South Africa: debt relief in exchange for progress toward global climate goals. The debt-for-climate concept, which was floated by International Monetary Fund MD Kristalina Georgieva in April, has been picked up by South African Deputy Finance Minister David Masondo and the South African Communist Party, which is part of the country’s ruling coalition. The IMF plans to raise the idea at the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow in November.
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South Africa’s green hydrogen ‘first mover’ opportunity based on three structural advantages

South Africa has three favourable structural characteristics that potentially give it a “first mover advantage” to become a global green-hydrogen leader, Sasol CEO Fleetwood Grobler argued in his address during a ‘Hydrogen Economy Discussion’ facilitated by well-known mining personality Bernard Swanepoel. The first advantage relates to South Africa’s and Southern Africa’s large-scale, high-quality renewable-energy potential.
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Ukrainian, US companies enter agreement to build new nuclear reactor

Ukrainian nuclear energy company Energoatom has signed a Memorandum of Cooperation with US nuclear manufacturing company Westinghouse, for the completion of the former’s Khmelnitsky nuclear power plant (NPP) unit 4, using the latter’s AP1000 reactor technology, World Nuclear News has reported. Khmelnitsky 4 was originally intended to be a Russian-technology VVER design but its construction was halted when it was only 28% complete. Construction of the new unit would be significantly accelerated by the fact that major AP1000 reactor components had already been built and were currently stored in the US, in a facility in the state of South Carolina. These components have been inspected by a delegation from Energoatom, including its acting director (head), Petro Kotin.
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Absa achieves compliance with new building energy performance requirements

Financial services provider Absa is the first bank to achieve compliance with the country’s new building energy performance regulations, the South African National Energy Development Institute (SANEDI) reports. In December 2020, the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) gazetted ‘Regulations for the Mandatory Display and Submission of Energy Performance Certificates for Buildings’.
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One-of-a-kind electricity forum to hold inaugural event this month

The inaugural Electricity Forum will be held on September 28 and 30 and will kick off a multi-stakeholder drive to turn the country’s multiple power challenges into opportunities to spur growth, investment and jobs. The initiative is being spearheaded by the Manufacturing Circle, which has partnered with the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC), to bring to fruition the one-of-a-kind initiative to boost manufacturing by catalysing the initiatives required to tackle the country’s crippling electricity constraints.
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