Author Archive for: Engineering News

The lack of electricity at the Johannesburg market since October 26 owing to cable theft is having a disastrous impact on the quality and safety of agricultural products, agricultural industry organisation Agri SA executive director Christo van der Rheede said on October 29. “During power outages, the market does not have the ability to supply power to the cold storage rooms. This has resulted in these storage rooms operating without cooling since October 26, with disastrous consequences to agricultural products. The value of stock in these cold rooms amounts to between R30-million and R61-million.”

Leaders of the Group of 20 wealthy economies are preparing to pledge to stop funding foreign coal-fired plants, but are still wrangling over climate objectives that are crucial to keeping global temperatures in check, according to a draft statement for this weekend’s summit.

The 11-page document seen by Bloomberg, which is still being negotiated by diplomats in Rome ahead of the meeting, shows key deliverables have yet to be agreed. The draft, dated Thursday, refers to the “existential challenge” of climate change.

US automotive manufacturer Tesla’s South African partner Rubicon Group and JSE-listed Growthpoint Properties have joined forces to highlight the environmental advantages of making use of renewable energy to provide some of the power requirements of buildings, such as Growthpoint’s 144 Oxford, in Rosebank. Sustainable technology company Rubicon Group brought the first Tesla Model X Performance Edition all-electric sports utility vehicle (SUV) into the country to raise renewable energy’s profile in the country, a move which the companies believe to be indicative that the combination of a high-performance car and highly-efficient green buildings “is powering greater awareness of positive ecological change”.

A free smart device app and Web-based tool has been developed to enable anyone in South Africa to measure how much energy, cost and greenhouse-gas emissions savings will be achieved by switching to light-emitting diode (LED) lighting, while ensuring the quality of luminescence is maintained or improved. A team from State-owned South African National Energy Development Institute (Sanedi), supported by German development agency GIZ and the South African German Energy Partnership, investigated three public sites in South Africa used by government agencies or departments using the app, and each site demonstrated significant savings in energy and costs, as well as rapid payback periods of up to two years, Sanedi Renewable Energy Centre of Research and Development manager Dr Karen Surridge said on October 28.

As a potential means to transition away from fossil-fuel-based electricity generation methods and towards greater decarbonisation of its energy mix, independent system modeler Clyde Mallinson this week said South Africa needs to build energy storage solutions to bridge the gap between when renewable energy is produced and when it is not to meet daily and peak demand.

Speaking during a webinar on the system benefits of energy storage on October 27, he said South Africa’s peak hourly electricity demand was 34.1 GW, while its average hourly demand was 26.4 GW.