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Eskom air pollution puts almost 80 000 lives at risk, study says

Air pollution from coal-fired power plants run by South Africa’s Eskom Holdings risks killing 79 500 people from 2025 until they are due to be shut, according to a study submitted to a government-appointed panel. The research by the Finland-based Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air assumes that the utility will continue to operate its plants as it does currently, with many of them breaching South African emission standards. The study was cited on Wednesday by the Centre for Environmental Rights (CER), a legal organisation representing environmental activist organizations in its submission to a panel on air pollution.
February 9, 2023 by

ArcelorMittal moves ahead with 200 MW Vanderbijl renewables project, studies third-party rail access

ArcelorMittal South Africa (AMSA) expects initial construction work on a 200 MW renewable-energy plant in Vanderbijlpark, Gauteng, to begin during the fourth quarter of 2023, with a feasibility study into the solution nearing completion. CEO Kobus Verster says the project has been necessitated by ongoing unreliable electricity supply and rising tariffs and he anticipates that the investment will begin delivering “meaningful cost reduction benefits by 2024/5”.
February 9, 2023 by

Inclusivity, productive land use and promoting biodiversity all help miners to go green

Major South African mining company Exxaro Resources had based its ambitions regarding the global decarbonisation process on its realisation that its own transition process had to be inclusive, assured the group’s Executive Head: Sustainability, Mongezi Veti. He was participating in a panel discussion at the Investing in African Mining Indaba 2023, in Cape Town, on Wednesday. Exxaro was originally, and remained predominantly, a coal miner, although it was diversifying its portfolio, including …
February 9, 2023 by

Nordex continues to see opportunity in South Africa despite recent headwinds

European wind turbine original equipment manufacturer (OEM) Nordex says South Africa remains a key market despite the disappointment of the country’s most recent renewables bidding round when not a single wind project advanced to preferred-bidder status, owing to grid constraints in the Cape provinces. Nordex Energy South Africa MD Compton Saunders tells Engineering News that the development has prompted a reassessment of the country’s future wind-turbine potential by the company, which has an estimated 32% domestic market share.
February 9, 2023 by

Salga calls for SoNA to address municipal debt recovery, energy crisis

The South African Local Government Association (Salga) has expressed hopes that President Cyril Ramaphosa will address municipal debt recovery, local government funding and the energy crisis as part of his State of the Nation Address (SoNA) on February 9.    This year’s SoNA takes place as South Africa struggles to deal with a significant energy crisis and a rising cost of living.  
February 8, 2023 by

Outa braces for more empty promises from SoNA

Ahead of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s yearly State of the Nation Address (SoNA) on February 9, Organisation Against Tax Abuse (Outa) CEO Wayne Duvenage has warned that empty promises will only deepen the distrust South Africans have towards the government.  “The Edelman Trust barometer has, for many years, indicated that South Africans have one of the lowest rates of trust in its government, with distrust as the default position. If [Ramaphosa] continues to make empty promises, he will continue to widen this gap. We need believable implementation of the many plans that are promised. We need impact,” he said. 
February 8, 2023 by

Shoprite, Coca-Cola, Burger King and others urge Ramaphosa to halt fuel taxes

The Consumer Goods Council of South Africa (CGCSA) on Tuesday urged President Cyril Ramaphosa to scrap the sugar tax, as well as suspend the fuel duty and road accident fund levies for the industry amid record levels of load shedding. In an open letter to President Cyril Ramaphosa – sent on behalf of the CEOs of Shoprite, PepsiCo, Coca-Cola, Tiger Brands, Burger King, British American Tobacco, Walmart-owned Massmart, Steers-owner Famous Brands and others – the CGCSA says that load shedding has “escalated catastrophically” and was crippling businesses.
February 8, 2023 by

Seriti Green comes in for praise during Eskom, Minerals Council fireside chat

The coal-to-renewables initiative of Seriti Green, the 91% black-owned and black-controlled Seriti Coal associate, came in for special praise at the interesting fireside chat between outgoing Eskom CEO André de Ruyter and outgoing Minerals Council South Africa CEO Roger Baxter on the second day of the Investing in African Mining Indaba. Seriti Green is building a 900 MW wind farm in South Africa’s electricity heartland of Mpumalanga, much of which will be used by the coal mines of the Seriti group as part of a decarbonisation initiative.
February 7, 2023 by

What Africa needs to go green is finance

From sunshine to rare minerals to a youthful population, Africa has the raw ingredients to make the green transition. Now it needs the finance. Take power. Exceptionally strong sun and vast swathes of desert mean Africa is the region with the highest solar generation potential over the long term, according to calculations by the World Bank. It’s now cheaper to build and operate new large-scale wind and solar farms in many parts of the world than to keep running coal or gas-fired power plants. With more than half of people in Sub-Saharan Africa living without electricity, expanding solar should be a no-brainer.
February 7, 2023 by

Energy transition offers great opportunities to Africa, but constraints are significant

The global transition to low- and zero-carbon energy sources was a once-in-a-generation opportunity for Africa, just as the original Industrial Revolution had been for the West, highlighted Bushveld Minerals CEO Fortune Mojepalo at the Invest in African Mining Indaba 2023 conference in Cape Town. He was participating in a panel discussion. It had been estimated, he said, that it would be necessary to develop 400 new mines, worldwide, to supply the metals that would be needed for the energy transition and the production of electric vehicles. The metals required included cobalt, lithium, and the platinum group metals. Africa led the world rankings in six or seven of the metals essential for the energy transition.
February 7, 2023 by