Grid storage uptake in South Africa lacks ‘direction or momentum’

A new report published by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) highlights that grid storage has yet to gain “direction or momentum” in South Africa, despite a growing recognition of the role that both utility scale battery energy storage systems (BESS) and other storage technologies can play in providing electricity services besides that of complementing renewables. Titled ‘Watts in Store’, the report distinguishes between grid or front-of-the-meter storage and consumer storage, with behind-the-meter energy storage having expanded significantly as firms and households have sought to protect themselves from intensifying loadshedding. Industry estimates quoted in the report indicate that, by 2022, yearly residential storage deployments alone had jumped to about 2 GWh.
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UN seeks to help developing countries access more funds for renewables investment

The world’s least developed countries rely on external sources for almost three-quarters of their energy investment but may pay up to seven times more than developed countries to access international capital markets, which is a major impediment to ramping up investments in renewables, United Nations secretary-general António Guterres says.  With the release of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development’s (Unctad’s) ‘World Investment Report 2023’, on July 5, he has called for a Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) stimulus, among other things, to increase long-term and affordable financing for developing countries “to enable them to invest at scale in the transition to renewable energy”.  
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Power trips at Rand Water an Eskom issue, says entity’s chief as water woes continue

Water outages in Johannesburg and Tshwane are a result of loadshedding, says Teboho Joala, Rand Water’s chief shared services officer and acting managing director. On Sunday, the municipalities warned residents there were still issues in some areas because of power outages which hit Rand Water in June
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