Germany extends €15m grant in support of Secunda green hydrogen project

The German government has approved a €15-million (about R277-million) grant in favour of chemicals group Linde in support of a renewable hydrogen project in Mpumalanga known as HySHiFT, which is being pursued jointly with Sasol, Enertrag and Hydregen Energy. The grant was confirmed during the recent visit to South Africa of German Economic Affairs and Climate Action Minister Robert Habeck, who is also Germany’s Vice Chancellor. The funding has been approved through Habeck’s own Ministry, known by its German acronym of BMWK.
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A pebble bed modular reactor nuclear power plant reaches full power – in China

The world’s first pebble bed modular reactor (PBMR) nuclear power plant (NPP) achieved full initial power on Friday, World Nuclear News has reported. It is located at Shidaowan in Shandong province in China. The NPP comprises two PBMR units, each of 250 MWt capacity, together driving a single 210 MWe steam turbine. There was a time when South Africa was the (not merely a) world leader in PBMR development. Indeed, in March 2009 Chinese entities, including Tsinghua University’s Institute of Nuclear Energy Technologies (INET), and technology company Chinergy, signed a Memorandum of Understanding with South Africa’s PBMR company, permitting cooperation in PBMR and related technologies. But while INET went on to build a 10 MWt pilot PBMR unit, which started operation in 2000 and reached full power in 2003, South Africa effectively terminated its PBMR programme in 2009.
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Joburg calls for 3-day loadshedding exemption to deal with rain-hampered outages

The City of Johannesburg (CoJ) has urgently requested State-owned utility Eskom to grant it a reprieve from loadshedding for three days to meet the [nearly insurmountable] challenge of escalating faults and outages following torrential rain in Gauteng. “Power lines and infrastructure cannot be worked on when there is no power and cable theft increases exponentially during blackouts. Accordingly, CoJ mayor Mpho Phalatse, on behalf of City Power, submitted an urgent request to Eskom for exclusion from loadshedding for a period of 72 hours to clear the current and increasing backlog.”
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Durban among several KwaZulu-Natal areas facing water crisis as loadshedding downs infrastructure

Hundreds of thousands of KwaZulu-Natal residents and holidaymakers are likely to celebrate Christmas without running water as electricity-powered engines are unable to pump water due to load shedding.  On Sunday, State-owned water entity Umgeni Water announced that load shedding was affecting supply of drinking water to municipalities within Umgeni Water’s service area. 
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Mpumalanga renewables study highlights importance of TVETs for value chains

A co-benefits study undertaken by industrial research body the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has shown that technical and vocational education and training (TVET) colleges can play a central role in supporting the transition of Mpumalanga’s economy to renewable energy from coal mining and coal-fired power generation, CSIR energy industry acting research group leader Aradhna Pandarum has said. The team, in collaboration with renewable energy transition foundation Renewable Energy Solutions for Africa, looked at the value chain of renewable solar photovoltaic and wind energy operations to identify the skills that Mpumalanga needs to develop to ensure its people can work in new jobs.
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TVET colleges critical to seizing the development opportunities of a just transition

South Africa’s skills policies are not in line with its environmental commitments and the country needs to significantly improve its technical and vocational education and training (TVET) ecosystem to produce the skills required to develop and capitalise on the just transition. “Environmental challenges are cross-cutting issues. They do not belong to one sector, and the transition involves multiple systems, but our skills system does not have the capacity to deal with cross-cutting skills requirements,” University of the Witswatersrand Future of Work Programme research centre director Presha Ramsarup said this week.
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News Analysis: Outcome of latest renewables round sends shockwaves across sector

Confirmation that only five solar photovoltaic (PV) projects – and potentially one other – had been appointed following the latest renewables bid window is sending shockwaves through the industry. It is doubly shocking as the round, which was launched in April, was delayed specifically to allow for an expansion in the procurement allocation from 2 600 MW to 4 200 MW as part of interventions announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa on July 25 to tackle extreme loadshedding.
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South African economy slowly recovering post-pandemic – TIPS

The latest Real Economy Bulletin (REB), published by economic research institution Trade and Industrial Policy Strategies (TIPS) on December 8, points to an upswing in South Africa’s economy and its trade and investment performance, with gross domestic product (GDP) exceeding pre-Covid-19 levels for the first time.

This outcome points to considerable resilience, especially around private-sector adaptations to the extraordinarily high levels of loadshedding over the past quarter.

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Uganda says will not renew Eskom’s hydropower licences next year

Uganda said on Friday it would not renew South Africa power firm Eskom’s licences to run two hydropower stations when they expire in March next year, as part of plans to bring the electricity sector under government control to reduce costs to consumers. The government will create the Uganda National Electricity Company Limited (UNECL), a state-run company to manage the generation, transmission and distribution segments of the electricity sector, the ministry of energy and mineral development said in a statement.
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Organised business urges govt to fund Eskom diesel

Organised business has called on government to fund adequate and reliable diesel supply for the country’s national peaking generators, which it describes as critical to ensuring that Eskom can best manage a stable grid and mitigate a further escalation in loadshedding levels. In a joint business statement on loadshedding, the Energy Council of South Africa, Business Unity South Africa and Business Leadership South Africa said that, while they recognise diesel generation to be a short-term measure, it was nevertheless “an important bridge for the ongoing maintenance work and unplanned outages over the next six months”.
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