Entries by

First two BW5 wind projects reach financial close

Two wind projects under Bid Window Five (BW5) of South Africa’s Renewable Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP) have reached financial close – the first REIPPPP projects to advance to financial close since 2018 and also the first BW5 projects to reach the milestone. Located on the border of the Eastern and Northern Cape provinces, the projects are the Phezukomoya and San Kraal wind energy facilities with capacities of 140 MW apiece and which will be built by EDF Renewables and its partners, H1 and Gibb-Crede.
November 14, 2022 by

CSIR statistics underline how significantly loadshedding has intensified during 2022

Statistics released by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) underlined how significantly loadshedding has intensified during 2022, which is the first year that the majority of the rotational cuts have been implemented at Stage 4, representing 4 000 MW of simultaneous cuts. It is also the first year since 2019 that Stage 6 loadshedding was implemented, and for far longer periods (nearly ten times longer) than was the case three years ago.
November 14, 2022 by

Cape Town mayor outlines city’s plans to achieve energy autonomy from Eskom

Cape Town Metropolitan Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis on Monday highlighted the city’s programme to generate power locally and free the Metro from loadshedding (rolling power cuts) imposed by the national electricity utility Eskom. He was addressing the Energy Indaba conference being held in the city. “Loadshedding and rolling blackouts are the number one handbrake on the South African economy right now,” he pointed out. A manufacturing industry could not be developed under loadshedding conditions. Services could get by, for example, by installing solar power systems. But that was not an option for heavy industry. And economic growth was essential to eliminate the serious problem of poverty.
November 14, 2022 by

Top Africa renewable firm sees South Africa power woes persisting

Africa’s biggest renewable power company said it will take years for South Africa’s electricity supply woes to ease after the government’s bias toward coal led to the collapse of wind and solar energy manufacturers. That legacy is being exacerbated by global supply chain issues that are slowing the construction of renewable plants, Chris Antonopoulos, CEO of Amsterdam-based Lekela Power, said in an interview.
November 14, 2022 by

M&R division awarded wind farm contracts worth R1.2bn

JSE-listed construction and engineering group Murray & Roberts (M&R) has announced that its trading division OptiPower has been awarded contracts by EDF Renewables.

The company was awarded the contracts together with Concor Construction, with which it has also concluded engineering, procurement and construction contracts for the Koruson main transmission substation and the 140 MW San Kraal and Phezukomoya wind farms, located on the boundary of the Eastern Cape and Northern Cape provinces.

November 11, 2022 by

EIB’s €200m funding of DBSA to support 1 200 MW private renewables roll-out

The European Investment Bank (EIB) has extended a €200-million loan to the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) to support the delivery of 1 200 MW of distributed renewables generation by private investors. The financing package, which is the largest-ever extended by the EIB to South Africa, was signed on Friday by EIB VP Ambroise Fayolle and DBSA CEO Patrick Dlamini on the side-lines of COP27 in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt.
November 11, 2022 by

Coal is king, insists Mantashe – as Ramaphosa is feted for green plan in Egypt

As world leaders fete President Cyril Ramaphosa for his green agenda in Egypt, his minister of mineral resources and energy insisted this week that coal will continue to play a critical part in electricity generation in South Africa. Gwede Mantashe believes coal, along with gas, nuclear and hydropower should be the main baseload.  Ramaphosa submitted South Africa’s R1.5 trillion investment plan to use less coal to a group of rich countries this week – to a rapturous response from the UK, US, Germany, France and the EU at the COP27 climate talks in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt.
November 11, 2022 by

Nedbank offering bespoke solar financing solutions

Novel financing solutions were needed to help businesses and individual customers buy and install solar energy solutions, financial institution Nedbank Commercial Banking transformation and sustainability head Mark Boshoff said during a webinar on solar energy and its future in South Africa hosted by Nedbank and energy solutions company AW Power on November 10. He said alarming price escalations over the past few years in solar energy solutions for businesses and individual citizens of the country necessitated a creative strategic approach to creating funding solutions for customers.
November 11, 2022 by