SA turns to Mozambique’s vast natural gas reserves as Eskom battles to keep the lights on

South Africa will seek to bolster its energy security by tapping into neighbouring Mozambique’s vast natural gas reserves. President Cyril Ramaphosa made the announcement on Friday morning in his opening remarks at the third South Africa-Mozambique Bi-National Commission Plenary Session held at the OR Tambo Building in Pretoria.
/by

Eskom CEO holds talks on potential projects with World Bank

The head of South Africa’s state power utility held discussions with the World Bank as it explores options for transitioning from coal-fired stations to cleaner sources of energy. Eskom Holdings CEO Andre de Ruyter travelled to the bank’s headquarters for the talks earlier this week. The utility supplies more than 90% of the country’s electricity, the bulk of it from coal.
/by

AfricaGoGreen Fund receives $31.5m to promote private sector efficiency investments

Development finance institution the African Development Bank (AfDB) and its Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa (SEFA) have approved a combined-equity investment of $20-million in the AfricaGoGreen Fund (AGGF) debt fund, which was established to promote private investments in energy-efficient technologies and business models, decarbonise African economies and accelerate the energy transition. This is in addition to the $11.5-million equity contribution approved by development finance institution the Nordic Development Fund (NDF).
/by

Red Rocket’s Roggeveld wind farm achieves commercial operations

African independent power producer (IPP) Red Rocket’s first wind farm in South Africa, Roggeveld, has reached commercial operations. The project, situated on the border of the Northern and Western Cape province, has an installed capacity of 147 MW and a contracted capacity of 140 MW.
/by

City of Cape Town studying battery storage as part of strategy to end load-shedding

The City of Cape Town is at the preliminary stages of assessing the business case for the deployment of battery energy storage systems (BESS) as part of its evolving strategy to eliminate the threat of load-shedding for its residents. The city is already moving ahead with plans to procure 300 MW of renewables generation from independent power producers and generation development manager Shane Prins reports that BESS is also on the city’s radar.
/by

Cape Town looks to IPPs to make the city load-shedding resilient by 2027

Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis is taking steps to protect the city from Stage 3 load-shedding by 2027 at a minimum – but preferably Stage 4 – in a move that he believes will facilitate “meaningfully faster” growth across the metropole. “Not only is it inconvenient to have load-shedding, but right now the energy crisis is the biggest handbrake on the South African economy.”
/by