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Delay gas procurement until policy reflects big cost and emission shifts – study

Before moving ahead with the procurement of gas-fired generation, South Africa should update both its Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) for electricity and its Gas Master Plan to reflect prevailing renewables and battery costs, as well as the country’s carbon constraints, a new Meridian Economics study argues. Titled ‘Hot Air About Gas: An Economic Analysis of the Scope and Role for Gas-Fired Power Generation in South Africa’, the study warns that the current policy approach of anchoring gas demand in the domestic electricity sector is premised on outdated cost and emission assumptions.
June 20, 2022 by

Climate change conference president in South Africa to discuss just energy transition

The President of the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26), Alok Sharma of the UK, arrived in South Africa on Sunday, to support the implementation of the South Africa Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP). He will depart the country on Tuesday. The JETP was announced at COP26, which took place last November and which was hosted by the UK. (Sharma will hold the presidency until COP27, which will be hosted by Egypt and is expected to take place in this coming November.) Apart from South Africa, the JETP member countries are the European Union, France, Germany, the UK and the US.
June 20, 2022 by

Schneider targets more licence agreements to accelerate localisation in South Africa

Energy management and automation multinational Schneider Electric is planning to partner with more South African manufacturers as part of a strategy geared towards accelerating the expansion of its domestic market presence, while increasing local content. Global CFO Hilary Maxson told Engineering News during a recent visit to South Africa that the group would pursue licence agreements with local companies, which would produce Schneider Electric -certified products using specialised components, but with the goal of progressively localising the solution over time.
June 20, 2022 by

Eskom has 32 GW of grid capacity, but not where most renewables investors want it

Eskom acknowledges that transmission constraints remain an obstacle to the introduction of new renewables generation, but the utility also highlights that 32 GW of grid capacity is immediately available to those independent power producers (IPPs) willing to build projects outside of the country’s prime solar and wind regions. Renewables developers have hitherto targeted the Northern, Western and Eastern Cape provinces, owing to the fact that the solar and wind resources in these regions are among the best globally and superior to those in South Africa’s other six provinces.
June 17, 2022 by

Faced with government ineptitude, Cape Town is going it alone

 As South Africa’s government struggles to provide sufficient electricity, public transport and other basic services, the country’s main tourist hub is increasingly going it alone.

Cape Town, which has been led by the opposition Democratic Alliance since 2006, is forging ahead with plans to secure its own energy supply. It’s also investigating the feasibility of taking over the city’s commuter rail network — currently operated by a State-owned company — and playing a role in getting the harbor to run more efficiently. And it’s hired more than 1 000 of its own security officers to complement the work of the police force, which it accuses of doing a dismal job of fighting gang violence and other crime.

June 17, 2022 by

Global clean energy transition not happening – REN21

According to global community of renewable energy actors REN21’s ‘Renewables 2022 Global Status Report’ (GSR), the global clean energy transition is not happening, making it unlikely that the world will be able to meet critical climate goals this decade.

Despite promises of a worldwide green recovery in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, REN21 says the historic opportunity to transition to greener industrial methods has been lost.

June 15, 2022 by

Two European Parliament Committees reject inclusion of nuclear in EU’s future energy plan

Two European Parliament committees have voted against the European Commission’s plan to include nuclear energy and gas in the European Union’s (EU’s) future energy taxonomy. (The European Commission is the EU’s executive body.) The two committees concerned are the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee and the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety Committee. To be precise, the majority of the Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) in both committees voted against the European …
June 15, 2022 by

Proposals made to end worsening load-shedding

Creamer Media’s Chanel de Bruyn speaks to Engineering News Editor Terence Creamer about warnings that load-shedding could become much worse if urgent action is not taken, proposals by Meridien Economics and other experts on how to end load-shedding and the need for political will and coordination in the energy sector.
June 15, 2022 by

Earth & Wire and Energy Exchange of Southern Africa sign PPA

Independent electricity brand Earth & Wire has signed a 12-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with the Energy Exchange of Southern Africa to provide 5 MW, or 13 GWh/y, of solar energy to Mediclinic and another large customer. The power will be generated from the Slimsun Too photovoltaic project, near Malmesbury, in the Western Cape, and delivered to the customers using power utility Eskom’s national grid.
June 14, 2022 by