The Governor of the US State of California, Gavin Newsom of the centre-left Democratic Party, has circulated draft legislation among the State’s lawmakers that would extend the life of California’s one-and-only nuclear power plant (NPP), Diablo Canyon. The draft legislation has been shown to various US news media. Originally commissioned in 1985, the two-reactor NPP is currently due to be shut down in 2024-2025, with the first reactor being shut down in late 2024 and the second in August 2025. It currently provides the State with 8.6% of its electricity, but 17% of its zero-carbon electricity.
Stage 2 load-shedding will be implemented at 16:00 to 24:00 on Wednesday and at the same time on Thursday, Eskom announced. The breakdowns of a generation unit each at Duvha, Kendal and Kriel power stations during the last 24 hours, as well as the delays in returning units to service at Arnot, Kusile and Tutuka power stations have put a severe strain on the power generation system.
Food and beverage manufacturer Tiger Brands is moving to procure 2 MW of solar across four manufacturing sites as part of a broader initiative to introduce renewable energy across 35 sites by 2030 to meet 65% of its electricity requirements. The initial capacity will be procured from independent power producers, or IPPs, which will supply the electricity under long-term power purchase agreements to Henneman Mill, in the Free State, King Foods, in the North West, as well as Tiger Brands’ beverages and home and personal care manufacturing plants in Gauteng.
In this article, attorneys Vaughn Harrison and Lucrecia Sadhaseevan write about South Africa’s energy landscape post COP 26, as well as the documents and processes that frame South Africa’s just energy transition process.