Archive for year: 2023

Dairy producer Woodlands Dairy has implemented several renewable energy resource projects at its large facility in Humansdorp aimed at replacing fossil fuels and reducing energy consumption and carbon emissions. The first step in a multi-phase solar initiative was completed in 2021, which consisted of 1 922 JA Solar photovoltaic modules and ten SolarEdge inverters and optimiser combinations, capable of generating 828 kW. The installed solar capacity is anticipated to provide 1.5 GWh/y of power, reducing the facility’s carbon emissions by 588 t, equivalent to planting 17 558 trees each year.

A Just Energy Transition (JET) was in the interests of South Africa, the World Bank has concluded. So reported World Bank senior energy economist Mariano Salto in a panel discussion at the Southern African Coal Conference, in Cape Town, on Friday. Renewable energy was the least-cost energy option for the country. But as wind and solar power were variable, other technologies were needed to cover this variability. South Africa had these technologies. Further, these options when implemented on scale would reduce the demand, and so strain, on Eskom’s power stations, allowing the utility to undertake long-postponed maintenance. Moreover, having a large number of small power stations would reduce generation risk; should a large Eskom power station suffer a failure, the result was loadshedding, but should a solar array at a renewable power station fail, no one would notice.

The Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) says it is working with other departments to expedite negotiations on a new nuclear cooperation agreement with the US, following the expiry of a previous agreement, with implications for the supply of nuclear fuel to Eskom’s Koeberg power station. The Nuclear Cooperation Agreement on the Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy was signed between South Africa and the US in 1995 and came into effect on December 4, 1997, for a period of 25 years. The agreement, thus, lapsed on December 4, 2022.

The impact of loadshedding on the agriculture sector is evident at all levels of operation, including logistics and cold chain management, which necessitates urgent responses from farmers and government, lest food security and export sales are put at risk. A report by Nova Economics estimates that agriculture lost about 4.38% of its contribution to gross domestic product in 2018/19 and that the cost of loadshedding for agriculture amounts to R4.01 per kWh in terms of 2020 values.

Struggling power utility Eskom has confirmed that it has secured funding to pay for its diesel requirements for the remainder of the current financial year, which ends on March 31, but has not yet provided full details on the funding mechanism. Speaking during a hastily convened media conference hosted to provide an update on the outlook for the system following a sustained period of Stage 5 and Stage 6 loadshedding, acting generation executive Thomas Conradie revealed that Eskom was operating its open-cycle gas turbines (OCGTs) extensively and would continue to do so for the rest of February and during March.