Having realised the potential of particularly solar energy in the renewable-energy sector, independent investment and advisory firm Bravura aims to implement additional in-house capabilities to further develop and promote energy projects. “The decision has been made in the wake of a number of successful projects being executed by our associate, solar solutions provider SolarSaver,” says Bravura business development head Ian Matthews.
After a year of planning and installing alternating-current and direct-current solutions, standby equipment manufacturer Static Power has commissioned a 1.1 MW solar photovoltaic (PV) grid-tied system at its ACTOM Medium Voltage Switchgear manufacturing facility in Knights, Gauteng. Static Power is a business unit within the division of Actom Smart Technologies which is within the ACTOM group.
Energy technology provider Midea Energy Solutions, a product division of global appliance and air conditioning manufacturer Midea, has partnered with local distributors Livance Distributors and Fourways Group to launch the Midea Energy Solutions range of inverter and energy storage products. The Midea brand has been in South Africa since 2013, and has now undertaken to extend its product offerings to include Midea Energy Solutions’ products through its networks in South Africa and sub-Saharan Africa.
Prefabricated deployment solutions developer Turnkey Modular rolled out the first of multiple solar alternating current (ac), low-voltage/medium-voltage, step-up skid or ‘E-Houses’ in July for chemicals and energy company Sasol Chemicals Midlands, in Sasolburg, in the Free State. The skid will be coupled to Sasol’s 10 MW solar photovoltaic (PV) plant, which forms part of the company’s broader greenhouse gas emission reduction strategy.
Solar, wind and battery storage are essential to the low-carbon energy transition and there is likely to be greater demand for input materials used in these sectors in the years ahead. This was noted by Fitch Solutions business unit BMI Research’s Group Power and Low Carbon Energy analyst David Thoo, speaking during the company’s ‘Global Renewables Capex Trends: Effects on Solar, Wind and Battery Storage’ webinar, on September 7.
The global head of renewable-energy group Scatec is “extremely enthusiastic” about the market opportunities in South Africa, where he says variable wind and solar generation offer the cheapest and quickest route to injecting electricity into the loadshedding-prone grid. It is also where the company is building an enormous hybrid project that is poised to demonstrate the competitiveness of solar and batteries relative to conventional dispatchable technologies that take far longer to deploy.
G7 Renewable Energies has withdrawn its High Court review against Eskom’s Interim Grid Capacity Allocation Rules (IGCAR), following what it describes as “meaningful industry engagements” that have resulted in an “amicable resolution”. On June 17 Eskom unveiled the interim rules, which sought to address the prevailing scarcity of grid connections by shifting the allocation methodology from the ‘first come, first served’ approached that had applied previously to a ‘first ready, first served’ arrangement.
The newly launched Discovery Green platform will link renewable energy production with business demands with the aim to create an aggregated, diversified and reliable energy marketplace. It will provide enrolled businesses with renewable energy by 2026, enabling them to significantly reduce their emissions and helping to address the national shortfall in electricity.
South African independent power producer Mulilo Energy has appointed former Eskom COO Jan Oberholzer as its new non-executive chairperson as it gears up to grow its renewables and battery storage portfolio by about 5 GW over the coming five years. The appointment became effective from September 1.
Electricity Minister Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa has attributed the “unwelcome” resumption of Stage 6 loadshedding, during which business and residential areas experience rotational cuts for as much as half of the hours in the day, to a combination of higher planned maintenance and a spike in unplanned breakdowns. During a virtual briefing convened after Eskom reported that it would implement Stage 6 until further notice, Ramokgopa reported that Eskom had started ramping up planned maintenance as it exited the high-demand winter period, during which such outages had been capped at 2 500 MW.
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