Finance organisation the African Development Bank Group has approved an equity investment of $20-million in Evolution Fund III, a pan-African clean and sustainable energy private equity fund that is mobilising about $400-million into renewable energy and resource-efficiency assets across sub-Saharan Africa over a ten-year period. Inspired Evolution Investment Management is a fund manager with more than 15 years of experience and a record of deploying more than $310-million in renewable energy projects in African counties.
The prospect of rapid growth in solar photovoltaic (PV) installations across South Africa will create opportunities for the localisation of supply chains and for domestic manufacturing, a new study commissioned by the South African Photovoltaic Industry Association (SAPVIA) has confirmed. However, the report also underlines the importance of economies of scale and stable and predictable demand for facilitating the investments needed for the manufacture of components such as PV modules, inverters, mounting structures and cables.
A contractor working at the Camden power station was arrested on November 16 after he was positively linked to an incident of sabotage following intensive investigative work by State-owned Eskom. The perpetrator, who is employed by a maintenance company working at the power station, intentionally removed a bearing oil drain plug from a bearing, causing the oil burners to trip repeatedly, Eskom said.
A contractor working at Camden power station in Mpumalanga was arrested on Tuesday after being positively linked to an incident of sabotage.  The contractor admitted to intentionally removing the oil drain plug from a bearing on Thursday last week, causing oil burners to trip repeatedly, Eskom said in a statement.
Municipal power utility City Power has gone out to the market to secure excess energy from alternative energy sources through short term power purchase agreements of up to 36 months. This step towards mitigating and eventually ending rolling blackouts follows commitments made at the two-day Joburg Energy Indaba in April.