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.
The City of Johannesburg (CoJ) highlighted on Tuesday that its current debt, which is sitting at close to R48-billion, is unsustainable. The municipality explained that a lot of the debt owed included money for rates, taxes, sewer, electricity and water, owing to illegal connection of services by businesses, residents and big organisations.
US-based rural Africa and Asia-focused net-zero energy company Husk Power Systems (Husk) announced on Tuesday the launch of its “Africa Sunshot” solar minigrid roll-out initiative. The initiative was launched at the Africa Climate Summit, currently under way in Nairobi, Kenya. Africa Sunshot is intended to achieve the creation of 2 500 net-zero solar energy minigrids to generate electricity for African communities with no, or only weak, connections with power transmission grids, within five years. The initiative will be funded by $500-million in equity and debt that Husk expects to mobilise.
Although persisting with his position that he has the powers to determine the sources of new generation, Electricity Minister Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa says because the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy’s (DMRE’s) updating process is well advanced, he is supporting the department in preparing to release the new Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) for public consultation soon. Responding to questions on the IRP during his weekly briefing on the implementation of the Energy Action Plan, Ramokgopa said he would be part of the “Ministerial team” that is currently finalising the document ahead of its approval for release.
Engineering News editor Terence Creamer discusses Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe’s plan to take an updated Integrated Resource Plan through Cabinet processes soon and the latest update from the Department of Public Enterprises on Eskom’s restructuring.
Resource-rich countries face a double transition – the transition in their energy supplies and the transition in their mining sectors, German Institute for International and Security Affairs senior associate Melanie Müller has said. The growing drive to confront the issues of climate change and other environmental dilemmas is gaining traction, manifesting as a ‘green energy transition’, denoting a pivotal shift from energy sources reliant on fossil fuels to those harnessed from renewable origins such as solar and wind, she pointed out this week during a webinar hosted by The South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA).
Energy plant operations and maintenance company Associated Energy Solutions (AES) is working on an operational optimisation project for a client in the fishing industry to install an additional 60 t/h of boiler plant capacity. The turnkey boiler project includes a new steam plant, with fuel and ash handling, as well as water and ancillary systems; its completion is expected in April 2024.
Solar power investment will reduce loadshedding and increase employment growth in 2024, and jobs are being created on the back of a growing resilience among businesses against the negative impacts of loadshedding, says assurance, advisory and tax services firm PwC South Africa in its eighth ‘South Africa Economic Outlook’ report. Employment is growing at a faster rate than many have expected given the elevated levels of loadshedding. The pipeline for large-scale solar projects is also improving the outlook for economic and employment growth in 2024 and beyond, it says in the report.
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