The South Africa Wind Energy Association (SAWEA) has announced that the Wind Industry Internship Programme (WIIP) will be running for the second time next year, with applications now open. The WIIP first launched in January, when 15 interns where placed and mentored by SAWEA member organisations for 12 months. The WIIP internship offers hands-on experience to exceptional South African students who are committed to building a career in renewable wind energy. The purpose of the WIIP is to provide young professionals who have recently completed a degree – or those undertaking graduate programmes – with the opportunity to gain practical work experience in line with their studies and interests, and to expose them to work that is related to sustainable energy. SAWEA is encouraging young aspiring professionals to apply for 2023 internships. FOCUS AREAS
Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe on Tuesday warned that the need to transition to low-carbon energy sources sat “uncomfortably” with energy poverty in Africa. He did so in his keynote address at the Africa Oil Week 2022 conference in Cape Town. He pointed out that while Africa was under pressure to decarbonise fast, many people in Africa still had no access to electricity. And, even those who did have access, as in South Africa, now had to minimise their electricity consumption due to rising electricity costs. (He made a passing reference to loadshedding – scheduled power cuts or outages – in South Africa.)
To protect its customers from some of the impacts of load-shedding, the City of Cape Town has issued a tender that will see customers rewarded for reducing their power use at a given time so that city-supplied customers can be protected from the impacts of load-shedding. These Cape Town “power heroes” will be key in the city’s load-shedding protection efforts going forward, where a reduction in energy use of 60 MW is targeted.
A total of 56 wind and solar projects have been submitted by prospective bidders under the sixth bid window (BW6) of South Africa’s Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPPP), which has been expanded to 4 200 MW from an initial allocation of 2 600 MW. The bids, which are split across five provinces, including 24 in the Western Cape province alone, have a combined capacity of more than 9 600 MW across 23 wind and 33 solar photovoltaic (PV) bids.
Eskom Holdings’ new chairperson Mpho Makwana said the board isn’t planning any immediate changes to management and will take between 30 and 60 days to assess the company’s power plants. Makwana, who was appointed along with almost all of the board this month, said the plants’ perfromance will be looked at to see what needs to be done to make them operational at an average of 75% of the time, a target set by Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan. Currently their so-called electricity availability factor, a measure of when they can produce electricity, is less than 60%.
Diversified mining company Anglo American, in partnership with EDF Renewables, on Tuesday announces an agreement to form a new jointly owned company, Envusa Energy, to develop a regional renewable energy ecosystem in South Africa. The energy ecosystem is also expected to catalyse economic activity in South Africa’s renewable energy sector, supporting the country’s broader just energy transition. It follows the two companies signing a memorandum of understanding in March to explore the ecosystem’s development, designed to meet Anglo American’s operational power requirements in South Africa and support the resilience of the local electricity supply systems and the wider decarbonisation of energy in the country.
A landmark $8.5-billion deal to help wean South Africa off its dependence on coal is hanging in the balance amid fraught negotiations with rich donor countries over how the funds should be spent. The climate finance deal, unveiled at UN-led talks in Glasgow last year, was hailed as a prototype for helping other coal-dependent developing countries transition to cleaner energy sources. Its success or failure could have a knock-on effect at next month’s COP27 summit in Egypt, which is expected to focus on the financing needs of poorer countries adapting to a warming atmosphere.
Economic and energy advisory company Meridian Economics is warning that the implementation of Eskom’s proposed retail tariff plan could severely disincentivise investment into the large distributed generation plants required to reduce, or end load-shedding, in the coming few years. The plan, which the utility says is necessary to rebalance variable and fixed charges in light of technology changes under way in the sector, has already met with stiff opposition from some residential customers and opposition political parties after the plan was submitted to the National Energy Regulator of South Africa for approval.
Although not programmed to do so, South African Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe addressed the Ministerial and VIP Symposium of the Africa Oil Week conference and Green Energy Africa Summit, being held in Cape Town, on Monday. Mantashe was programmed to deliver a keynote address at the conference on Tuesday.
A study by global management consultancy Kearney has noted that Southern Africa, which has favourable conditions for renewable energy production, will be able to store renewable energy and export it to areas where renewable energy production is technically or economically limited. “The world’s steadily growing demand for hydrogen is expected to exceed supply by 2030, making now an ideal time to invest. Although Southern Africa has a major opportunity to produce green hydrogen, the region’s demand is projected to be lower than the demand centres in Europe and Asia,” says Kearney partner Prashaen Reddy.
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