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Environmental groups opposed to Richards Bay gas power plant get High Court date

Environmental organisations the South Durban Community Environmental Alliance (SDCEA) and groundWork have been notified that their case challenging the environmental authorisation by the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) for a 3 000 MW combined cycle gas power plant, in Richards Bay, will be heard in the North Gauteng High Court later this year. It is the first court case in South Africa challenging the environmental authorisation of a gas power plant, and the litigation raises specific concern about an inadequate assessment of climate change impacts and alternatives to this project, which includes renewable energy.
March 10, 2022 by

SAB signs PPA with waste-to-energy company

The South African Breweries (SAB) has signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) with black-woman-owned industrial-scale biogas waste-to-energy company Bio2Watt. Bio2Watt will supply SAB with renewable energy from its Cape Dairy biogas plant once it reaches commercial operation.
March 10, 2022 by

Eskom readies for R5bn first phase of battery storage roll-out

State-owned electricity producer Eskom says it is in the final stages of pre-contract discussions for the first phase of its much-anticipated battery energy storage system (BESS) deployment, which will involve investments valued at about R5-billion. During Phase 1, the utility aims to introduce 199 MW/832 MWh of BESS capacity across eight sites, including:
March 10, 2022 by

Scatec, partners to develop large-scale green ammonia facility in Egypt

Renewable energy producer Scatec has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the General Authority for the Suez Canal Economic Zone (SCZone), the Sovereign Fund of Egypt (TSFE), the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company (EETC), and the New and Renewable Energy Authority (NREA), to jointly develop a green ammonia facility in Egypt with an initial production capacity of one-million tonnes a year and potential to possibly increase to three-million tonnes a year. The green hydrogen and ammonia facility will be located in the SCZone in the Ain Sokhna Industrial Zone and will be powered by renewable energy plants to be built in close proximity on an area of land allocated by the NREA.
March 10, 2022 by

Eskom, Hawks swoop on cable theft syndicate in Mpumalanga

Power utility Eskom reports that its investigators, along with members of the Vosman South African Police Service (SAPS) and the Hawks’ Serious Organised Crime Unit on March 8 arrested at least 14 suspects involved in alleged cable theft. The suspects were arrested during the raid of premises in Vosman, Mpumalanga. Large volumes of cables, comprising aluminium and copper, were found stored on multiple premises, including that of a scrap metal dealer.
March 9, 2022 by

Diesel supply and pricing again under the spotlight as Eskom intensifies cuts to preserve reserves

Eskom has again issued a warning over the supply and pricing of diesel, which it has been consuming at extreme levels in recent days to cover for its underperforming coal fleet, the energy availability factor (EAF) of which has now slumped to below 60%. The State-owned utility deployed its open cycle gas turbine (OCGT) plants well beyond the peak periods for which they are designed on Monday and Tuesday, partly to replenish the upper dams at its pumped-storage schemes.
March 9, 2022 by

IAEA concerned about the situation at Chernobyl nuclear site in Ukraine

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has reported that the remote safeguards monitoring systems at the ruined Chornobyl nuclear power plant (NPP) had ceased transmitting data. Chornobyl, better known by its Russian name Chernobyl, was the location of the world’s worst nuclear accident, in 1986. The Chornobyl site sits in an exclusion zone and contains both decommissioned reactors and radioactive waste facilities. Since February 24, it has been occupied by invading Russian forces. The working shift of some 210 personnel who were on duty at that time have not since been relieved or rotated and have effectively been sleeping at the NPP. Ukraine’s nuclear regulator has told the IAEA that the Chornobyl staff have access to food and water and to limited medication, but that communication was solely by email. All other communications with the NPP were down.    
March 9, 2022 by

Women keen to participate in energy efficiency projects – DMRE

Studies indicate that women want to participate in the energy sector, and especially within the energy efficiency sector, both of which currently have poor representation of women, Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) gender mainstreaming and transformation national coordinator Winnie Mamatsharaga said on March 8. Speaking in a webinar, hosted by the DMRE, on business opportunities for women in the energy efficiency sector, she said women were unable to compete on an equal footing with men in the energy sector as a result of several factors.
March 8, 2022 by