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Eskom diesel plan will be announced in the coming days, says Gordhan

A plan to deal with Eskom’s diesel crisis will be announced in the coming days, Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan told Parliament on Wednesday. Eskom said last week that it had overspent its budget for diesel and had no more cash to buy new stocks until 1 April. Diesel is used to run Eskom’s two open-gas cycle turbine power plants, each of which can ward off a stage of load shedding.
November 23, 2022 by

Southern Africa’s largest man-made dam drains to record low

Water levels at the Kariba reservoir, Southern Africa’s largest man-made dam, have dropped to a record low. The dam had 5.63% of usable storage on Monday compared with 27% at the same time last year and less than the previous low set almost three decades ago, according to data available on the Zambezi River Authority’s website. Normally, water levels start rising in January.
November 23, 2022 by

Nestlé adds solar capacity at its Babelegi plant as part of 2050 net-zero plans

Food and beverage company Nestlé’s East & Southern Africa Region (ESAR) has installed a 966 kW ground-mounted solar photovoltaic (PV) power plant at its Babelegi manufacturing plant, in Hammanskraal, Gauteng. The 1 806 PV panels are expected to deliver about 2.1-million kilowatt-hours of energy a year, which equates to 15.6% of the total electrical energy requirement of the factory, which manufacturers Cremora coffee creamer and Maggi two-minute noodles, for the full year.
November 22, 2022 by

Omnia sees further growth in targeted sectors, interim earnings up 30%

JSE-listed diversified chemicals producer Omnia grew its interim earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation, excluding its Zimbabwean operations and impairments, by 30% year-on-year to R1.4-billion for the six months ended September 30.

This resulted in the group’s adjusted headline earnings a share from continuing operations being 32% higher year-on-year, at R4.01.

November 22, 2022 by

Govt aiming to wrap up consultations on R1.5tr JET-IP by mid-Feb

Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment Minister Barbara Creecy reports that public consultations on the country’s Just Energy Transition Investment Plan (JET-IP), which was unveiled only days before the start of COP27, should be concluded by mid-February. In a briefing following the conclusion of the climate negotiations that took place in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, Creecy said that the Presidential Climate Commission would help facilitate the consultations, which she said would “fundamentally assist us in shaping the implementation plan”.
November 22, 2022 by

Lekela forges ahead with Senegal battery plant, eyes hydrogen projects

Lekela Power, the company with the most renewable energy assets in Africa, plans to soon complete financial arrangements for the biggest battery storage facility in the west of the continent and wants to expand into providing electricity for green hydrogen projects. The Amsterdam-based company intends building a 160 MWh battery plant next to its 159 MW Parc Eolien Taiba N’Diaye wind-powered power facility in Senegal, said Chris Antonopoulos, Lekela’s chief executive officer, stressing that they are separate projects.
November 22, 2022 by

The Impact Catalyst launches in Mpumalanga

Large-scale, socioeconomic development initiative driver The Impact Catalyst was launched in Mpumalanga on November 21 to promote initiatives designed to leverage collaboration to deliver a collective, cross-sectoral impact.

The Impact Catalyst – founded by Anglo American, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Exxaro and World Vision South Africa – has already been launched in Limpopo and the Northern Cape.

November 21, 2022 by