Saldanha Bay ideal for green hydrogen production

The Saldanha Bay region has “excellent” solar and wind resources that have the potential for large renewable energy electricity at competitive costs, making it an ideal location to produce green hydrogen – hydrogen made using renewable energy as a source of electricity – Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) senior research engineer Thomas Roos highlighted during a recent event. In a keynote address at the second Energy Transition webinar, on April 12, hosted by the Saldanha Bay Innovation Campus (SB-IC), he said that, although electricity was a contested space in South Africa, the potential for green hydrogen production “far exceeds” local demand.
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GreenCape selects ten finalists for its GreenPitch challenge

Climate change adaptation and green economy nonprofit GreenCape has selected ten finalists for the 2022 GreenPitch Challenge. The ten green economy innovators will prepare to pitch their innovations to a panel of judges on May 5, at an event hosted by GreenCape in partnership with the City of Cape Town’s Invest Cape Town and The Business Hub.
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Nedbank extends R200m green loan for Vukile solar projects

JSE-listed real estate investment trust Vukile Property Fund has concluded a five-year, R200-million use-of-proceeds green loan with financial services firm Nedbank Corporate and Investment Banking, which will fund 19 solar energy projects and energy-efficiency initiatives across South Africa. The loan will fund seven recently installed solar energy projects of R60-million.
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Eskom warns of 101 days of load-shedding this winter in ‘extreme’ case

There can be as many as 101 days of load-shedding this winter, in the “extreme case”, according to an Eskom official. Eskom on Tuesday provided an update on the state of the power system, this after load-shedding escalated to Stage 4 in the morning due to failing generating units.
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De Ruyter in ‘call to arms’ appeal for cutting of red tape binds on new and existing capacity

Eskom CEO André de Ruyter has appealed for an immediate easing of regulatory impediments to the introduction of both immediately available capacity of about 500 MW and the accelerated procurement, or introduction, of the generation capacity required to ease the now constant risk of load-shedding. De Ruyter made this “call to arms” after the utility declared Stage 4 load-shedding at short notice on Tuesday morning and indicated that the rotational cuts would continue until at least Thursday night, owing to high levels of unplanned breakdowns of more than 15 600 MW.
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RMB CEO calls for localisation rules to be waived to catalyse transition to renewables

Financial services firm RMB CEO James Formby says South Africa urgently needs a “megawatts first” policy and that localisation rules, which make renewable energy more expensive, should be waived. Local material content rules increase the cost of wind and solar energy production. Import tariffs, such as those on imported steel, are also making renewable energy more expensive.
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Load-shedding jumps to Stage 4

Eskom has announced that load-shedding has immediately jumped to Stage 4 on Tuesday morning after more generation units failed.  The power utility said the jump from Stage 2 happened at 7:20 after Majuba Unit 5 and Tutuka Unit 4 tripped. 
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