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No immediate Eskom debt solution, as Minister outlines ‘tough love’ stance on SOEs

Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana offered no new insight in his maiden address to lawmakers into how government intended approaching the issue of Eskom’s R400-billion debt burden, which has been labelled unsustainable by the utility, and also refrained from making any new provisions for distressed State-owned enterprises (SOEs). Instead, he said that he would be adopting a “tough love” stance towards SOEs, albeit with the caveat that government would most likely support those entities regarded as “strategic”, such as Eskom, Transnet and Denel.
November 11, 2021 by

Eskom seeks urgent conversion of $8.5bn political declaration into commercial agreement

Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter reports that the State-owned utility has already taken some initial steps to ensure that the $8.5-billion political declaration signed at COP26 in early November is urgently converted into a practical commercial agreement to support its just transition programme. Addressing the second of what have become daily briefings on the state of the system, which has once again succumbed to an intensive period of load-shedding, De Ruyter reported that follow-up discussions had been held on Wednesday with one of the multilateral lenders involved in the declaration to assess whether the flow of funds could be accelerated.
November 10, 2021 by

Coal company sees first equity for renewables shift in Botswana

Shumba Energy secured the first equity commitments to develop an $80 million solar project in Botswana as part of the coal company’s plan to shift to renewable energy. The company’s green energy unit, Shumba Renewables, received commitments of $950,000 from international investors, Shumba Energy’s MD Mashale Phumaphi said in an interview Tuesday, without disclosing the names. Full funding for the 100-megawatt solar project that will be the nation’s largest and situated in north-eastern Botswana is expected by the second quarter of next year, Phumaphi said.
November 10, 2021 by

Mining sector looking toward hydrogen, battery storage to decarbonise

The global energy landscape is changing amid a rush to net-zero emissions by 2050, and renewable energy is going from strength to strength, with these projects having captured nearly 50% of all new generation build capital in 2020.

Energy services company Wärtsilä Canada business development manager Mark Kennedy said during an Energy and Mines World Congress 2021 session on November 9 that, by 2030, this would likely increase to 67%.

November 10, 2021 by

‘We’ll breathe clean air, but in darkness’ – Mantashe’s DDG slams ‘financial bullying’ in …

Deputy Director General of the Department of Mineral Resources Ntokozo Ngcwabe has slammed what she called “financial bullying” by funders who refuse to finance coal projects, saying that South Africa needs to pace itself in its move away from the polluting resource. “We need to pace ourselves [in scaling down coal use]  … and not be pressured to meet certain deadlines by a certain time if we are not at the same level of development [as richer countries],” Ngcwabe said in a media interview on Wednesday.
November 10, 2021 by

Procurement rules and liquidity constraints hold back Eskom’s maintenance roll-out

Liquidity constraints and procurement problems continue to impede Eskom’s reliability maintenance recovery (RMR) programme, with CEO Andre de Ruyter reporting that South Africa’s public procurement rules have undercut the utility’s efforts to swiftly appoint the competent contractors needed to undertake the programme. In a briefing hosted during another bout of Stage 4 load-shedding – which is expected to be de-escalated to Stage 3 on Wednesday and then Stage 2 on Friday, before being cancelled entirely over the weekend – De Ruyter said the procurement system “really does not lend itself to this type of maintenance programme”.
November 9, 2021 by

Rolls-Royce and partners launch specialist small modular nuclear reactor company

UK-based global industrial technology group Rolls-Royce announced late on Monday the creation of a new subsidiary company, Rolls-Royce SMR Limited. This is a special purpose vehicle (SPV) which is focused on the development of Rolls-Royce’s small modular nuclear reactor (SMR) project and the creation of the new entity follows a successful ‘equity raise’ to fund the further development of the project. “[Monday’s] announcement is fantastic news,” enthused Rolls-Royce SMR CEO Tom Samson. “Rolls-Royce SMR has been established to deliver a low cost, deployable, scalable and investable programme of new nuclear power plants. Our transformative approach to delivering nuclear power, based on predictable factory-built components, is unique and the nuclear technology is proven.”
November 9, 2021 by

R130bn climate deal can be leveraged for R500bn clean energy shift, says RMB

The R130-billion concessional climate finance green deal South Africa signed at COP26 could translate into a R500-billion boost to help South Africa’s just energy transition to decarbonise its sources of energy, says financial services firm RMB CEO James Formby. “We are yet to see the details behind these financial commitments such as the timing and conditions, but overall we are optimistic about the potential substantial decarbonisation benefits for South Africa that will move us closer to globally accepted emission targets.”
November 9, 2021 by