Author Archive for: Engineering News

African National Congress President Cyril Ramaphosa claims that South Africa “has turned a definite corner as far as loadshedding is concerned”, adding that the levels and frequency of loadshedding are expected to improve during the fourth quarter. In closing remarks following the party’s National Executive Committee meeting, Ramaphosa attributed this claim to the “return of Kusile units, embedded generation by private households and businesses, and demand management”.

President Cyril Ramaphosa reiterated that his administration wasn’t moving to privatize state-owned companies as the government initiates reforms to clean up their balance sheets and revive their performance. Private-sector investment was necessary to mobilize funds for economic infrastructure given the government’s limited fiscal space, Ramaphosa said at a meeting of his party, the African National Congress. The involvement would be “subject to stringent regulations,” which would enable energy security and exporting of critical goods.

The Eastern, Northern and Western Cape provinces have agreed to team up in a bid to position South Africa as a global hub for the production of green hydrogen and derivative products, as well as to produce the components required in the green hydrogen value chain, ahead of the finalisation of the long-awaited Green Hydrogen Commercialisation Strategy. The three coastal provinces are all playing host to potential multi-billion rand green-hydrogen projects and have been working separately on strategies and roadmaps in an effort to capture the jobs, growth and industrialisation opportunities that could flow should the projects materialise.

The newly installed solar plant at Sun International’s Sun City, in the North West, is exceeding expectations, having saved the company over R1-million over the past two months. The R16-million, grid-tied, 1.4 MW installed capacity system, with 2 584, 550 W monocrystalline solar photovoltaic modules, was installed on the roof of Sun City’s conference and entertainment centre earlier this year to reduce the resort’s reliance on South Africa’s electricity grid.

Amid local energy constraints and a global focus on increasing renewable energy capacity, the importance of ensuring that proper planning is implemented as South Africa transitions to cleaner energy was highlighted during a roundtable discussion at this year’s South African (SA) Auto Week, hosted by naamsa | The Automotive Business Council, in Johannesburg, from October 11 to 13. During the discussion, a need to diversify the energy mix and ensure a stable baseload energy supply was discussed, with South African Nuclear Energy Corporation CEO Loyiso Tyabashe arguing that nuclear energy can contribute towards a diversified energy mix.