South Africa recorded a landmark 160 days with no loadshedding, the longest period in over four years. However, maintaining future grid stability will require a doubling down on wind investment as well as higher spending on transmission infrastructure, says local renewable-energy developer Red Cap. Two factors contributed to this milestone: greater availability of baseload power, as well as the new supply contributed by private wind developers. As of August 2024, State-owned utility Eskom’s available generation capacity reached over 35 000 MW, which exceeded peak demand by more than 3 000 MW.
Leading green energy company G7 Renewable Energies is making headway in advancing South Africa’s transition to a green economy with various wind energy projects in progress for the purpose of enhancing the country’s Just Energy Transition initiatives. The latest projects in construction on behalf of G7 Renewable Energies are the 140 MW Brandvalley, 140 MW Rietkloof and 103 MW Witberg wind farms.
Technical and environmental engineering advisory firm Harmattan Renewables is continuing its participation in the Wind Industry Internship Programme, so that student employees in the sector can acquire the experience and skills needed to address the challenge of an ongoing skills shortage in the local renewable-energy industry. The programme, first launched in 2021 by the South African Wind Energy Association, will equip graduates with the necessary skills to address ongoing wind turbine operations and asset management, as ageing assets can be repaired, says Harmattan Renewables director Chanda Nxumalo.
Details on the approach South Africa will be taking to piloting Independent Power Transmission (IPT) projects as part of a strategy to accelerate the expansion of its electricity grid will be included in the upcoming Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS), a senior official in the office of Electricity and Energy Minister Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa has confirmed. The MTBPS is scheduled to be released by Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana on October 30.
As South Africa tackles the next energy challenge of grid capacity, ENERTRAG South Africa technical head Dr Clinton Carter-Brown advocates for local collector grids that can integrate power from multiple projects and provide dispatchable green energy when combined with energy storage.
His comments come ahead of South African Wind Energy Association’s seventh yearly WindAc Africa Conference in October, in Cape Town.
The Industrial Gas Users Association of Southern Africa (IGUA-SA) has welcomed the attention that South Africa’s impending “gas cliff” is finally enjoying from government through Electricity and Energy Minister Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa. The body is cautioning, however, against conflating the recent signing of an agreement between Eskom and Sasol to jointly explore ways to shore-up demand to facilitate the importation of liquefied natural gas (LNG), which Ramokgopa attended, with the “national strategy” or “country plan” required to avert the crisis.
G7-backed push to close coal power plants in emerging markets is facing further delays after a July deadline passed without a deal on the early closure of an Indonesian power plant that would be the first to shut under the initiative.
The push against coal comes under the Just Energy Transition Partnerships (JETPs) with Indonesia, Senegal, South Africa and Vietnam that call for billions of dollars in investments, grants and loans from G7 members, multilateral banks and private lenders to help them transition to low-carbon economies.
The National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) has formally published Eskom’s much-anticipated and much-criticised allowable revenue application for the coming three years ahead of what is likely to be a vigorous and potentially hostile public consultation phase. The documents have been published on the Nersa website following an assessment of its compliance with the methodology and approval to do so during a special Electricity Subcommittee meeting held on September 23.
The next round of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) will be a critical test for the implementation of the COP28 pledge, made by nearly 200 countries in the United Arab Emirates last year, of tripling renewables and doubling energy efficiency by 2030. This finding is contained in a new International Energy Agency (IEA) report, titled ‘From Taking Stock to Taking Action: How to implement the COP28 energy goals’, which was released this week during the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
Engineering News editor Terence Creamer discusses Eskom and Sasol’s collaboration on the potential to introduce liquified natural gas to replace natural gas imports from southern Mozambique, which are currently set to decline sharply from 2027.
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