Groot Constantia to crowd-sell 165 kW solar plant

South Africa’s oldest wine-producing farm and world-renowned tourist destination Groot Constantia has partnered with innovative solar leasing platform Sun Exchange to crowd-sell a 165 kW solar plant for Groot Constantia’s winemaking facilities and restaurants.

Hosted on the Sun Exchange platform, the crowd-sale enables people across South Africa and the globe to easily buy solar cells for R64 a cell, thereby essentially investing in a portion of the eventual solar farm and being able to earn money back on the power generated by their solar cells.

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Scrap catalytic converters an important source of investment, company says

Although scrap catalytic converter prices vary according to the brand and model, refining systems provider Proses Makina notes that the precious metals contained in the catalytic converter influence the price and monetary value, meaning that the price of a catalytic converter could vary from between $6 up to $800. “Logically, this means that the more precious metals it contains, the higher the scrap metal price. However, increasing platinum, palladium and rhodium prices also influence the price,” the company says.
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Mainstream, Actis to sell Lekela to Infinity and AFC

Renewable energy company Mainstream Renewable Power and sustainable infrastructure investment company Actis have signed an agreement to sell renewable energy independent power producer Lekela Power to diversified investments company Infinity Group and multilateral financial institution the Africa Finance Corporation (AFC). “This planned exit reflects the successful culmination of Mainstream’s and Actis’ partnership strategy for Lekela, with the platform consisting of a leading management team, over 1 GW of fully operational assets and significant growth prospects,” the companies said on July 18.
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Eskom confirms load-shedding stages for this week

Eskom confirmed that load-shedding will be kept at Stage 2 between 16:00 and midnight from Monday to Thursday. At the moment, Stage 1 is planned from Friday to Monday, also between 16:00 and midnight.
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Creecy criticises lack of climate finance progress since COP26

South Africa’s environment Minister Barbara Creecy has criticised the lack of progress, since COP26, in the area of climate finance support for developing countries, arguing that there has been a failure to promote “adequate ambition”. Speaking at the Petersberg Climate Dialogue in Berlin, Germany, Creecy said it was time to tackle climate finance with the sense of urgency and scale it deserved.
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Africa can increase natural gas supply, exports to Europe

Export capacity constraints currently hamper some African countries from increasing their exports of natural gas and liquefied natural gas and, while exploration has dropped off, new gasfield discoveries present an opportunity for Africa to grow the supply of natural gas to Europe, said energy industry experts during the ‘Energy in Africa’ think-tank discussion this week. Natural gas, as an energy transition fuel, is available in Africa. It also has multiple industrial uses, burns significantly cleaner than other carbon sources, such as coal or oil, and has a suitable export market, especially since the start of the Russia-Ukraine crisis, said consulting and market research multinational Frost & Sullivan Africa energy and power consultant Patrick Prestele on July 14.
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Enel Green Power South Africa appoints new country manager

Renewable energy corporation Enel Green Power South Africa (EGP SA) has appointed Manuele Battisti country manager.

Battisti, who succeeded William Price, joined Enel Group in 2008 and has held various positions within the company, before moving to South Africa in 2019.

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South Africa to unveil solutions to power crisis within days

The South African government will within days announce new ways to address the country’s worst power crisis yet, President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Friday. Addressing a South African Communist Party (SACP) conference, Ramaphosa said the government needed to “use every available means and remove every regulatory obstacle to bring extra electricity onto the grid as soon as possible”.
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Numsa signs above-inflation increase for Eskom Rotek members

The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) has signed an above-inflation wage agreement with Eskom’s wholly-owned construction, maintenance and transportation services subsidiary Eskom Rotek Industries (ERI).

The wage agreement – valid for a year and expiring on June 30, 2023 – entitles all bargaining unit-affiliated ERI employees a 7% increase in basic salaries across the board, effective June 30. 

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European-Japanese project to cut costs of turning carbon dioxide into methanol soon to start tests

The Euro-Japanese Laurelin project, to develop innovative technologies to convert carbon dioxide (CO2) into renewable methanol, is completing the assembly of three advanced chemical reactor demonstrators, to test three different CO2 conversion technologies. The project has been running for a year, and is funded by the European Union’s (EU’s) Horizon 2020 programme and the Japan Science and Technology Agency. It involves research organisations, universities and small and medium enterprises in EU …
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