Some relief as load shedding drops to Stage 3 on Thursday

Load shedding will be maintained at Stage 4 until Thursday at 05:00, whereafter it will be reduced to Stage 3 until 05:00 on Saturday morning, Eskom announced on Wednesday.  This after a generation unit each at Arnot, Kriel, Lethabo, Matla as well as two units at Camden Power Station returned to service on Tuesday night.
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South Africa submits new climate plan to win $8.5bn for coal switch

South Africa has submitted to some of the world’s richest nations a revised plan for how it will spend a proposed $8.5-billion to help it transition away from coal, two people familiar with the situation said. The new draft — sent to funding partners the UK, US, France, Germany and the European Union — advances a process that’s been mired for almost a year in complex negotiations. The people, who asked not to be named because talks are ongoing, declined to give any detail on what the amendments involve.
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Cars.co.za buys into Sun Exchange Karoo off-grid solar project

Global solar leasing platform, Sun Exchange, has announced that South African automotive platform Cars.co.za has bought into a project that provides off-grid solar power, plus battery storage, to the Karoo Fresh commercial farm. By using the Sun Exchange platform to buy more than 16 000 solar cells, valued at more than R2.5-million, Cars.co.za says it hopes to leverage its balance sheet to drive sustainable energy, while also creating an alternative income stream for its business over the 20-year lifespan of the solar project.
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Africa needs to use all its energy sources to develop, says AU Commissioner

Africa must make use of all its energy resources, as it needs to achieve development. So affirmed African Union (AU) Commissioner for Infrastructure and Energy Amani Abou-Zeid in her keynote address to the Africa Oil Week conference in Cape Town. She highlighted that some 50% of African people still had no access to modern energy. Moreover, for the first time, the process of connecting Africans to modern energy had slowed down. “Africa will have to utilise all forms of its energy sources to meet all its needs,” she said. “Now is not the time to be picking and choosing.”
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South African business activity contracts in Sept – S&P PMI

South African private sector activity contracted in September as increased power cuts led to steep falls in output and new orders, a survey showed on Wednesday. S&P Global’s South Africa purchasing managers’ index (PMI) fell to 49.2 in September from 51.7 in August. Readings below 50 indicate a contraction in activity.
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Kenya’s Ruto breaks ranks, says Africa must leapfrog fossil fuel

Kenya’s President William Ruto, who took office last month, urged Africa to embrace renewable energy, breaking ranks with continental peers that are pressing ahead with plans to develop natural gas resources. In order to boost energy generation from renewable sources and to adapt to a warming climate, Africa will need funding and technology from the rich world, Ruto said in an opinion piece in the UK’s Guardian newspaper on Tuesday. Unlike many African countries, Kenya already derives 92% of its energy from renewable sources and aims to increase that to 100% by 2030, Ruto said, referring to the country’s geothermal, wind and solar plants.
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SARB says power cuts to weigh on 2022 growth

The South African Reserve Bank (SARB) said on Tuesday it estimates that scheduled power cuts implemented by utility Eskom will shave about one percentage point from 2022 economic growth. Electricity outages in Africa’s most industrialised nation have reached record levels this year as Eskom, saddled with unreliable coal-fired power stations, has struggled to meet demand.
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Load-shedding should ease in the next ten days, says De Ruyter

Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter said power cuts should start easing within the next 10 days when big generation units are expected to come back online.  The state utility ramped up power rationing to 4 000 megawatts from 18:00 Tuesday until further notice due to generation trips at its Kendal and Lethabo plants and has imposed a record 120 days of blackouts so far in 2022.
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Coal revival threatens to push power sector emissions to record

Global carbon emissions from power plants may be headed for a record high this year after summer droughts and heatwaves boosted coal- and natural gas-fired generation.

The jump in fossil fuel use pushed emissions from electricity production up 1.7%, or 133-million tons, in the first eight months of this year, climate think-tank Ember said in a report Wednesday. Most of the increase was in July and August, as fossil generation was unchanged in the first half from a year earlier.

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