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South African nuclear entity signs memorandum with its South Korean counterpart

The South African Nuclear Energy Corporation (Necsa) on Wednesday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the (Republic of) Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (Kaeri), the South African State-owned entity announced on Thursday. The MoU was signed in a virtual ceremony, came into effect immediately, and has a term of five years. “Nuclear technology is essential to human life and, through this MoU, we are making this a global reality,” asserted Necsa Group CE Loyiso Tyabashe. The MoU will help advance Necsa’s vision, which is of becoming a celebrated nuclear and research agency in Africa and around the world.
October 14, 2021 by

Development banks told to ramp up green ambitions ahead of COP26

The world’s multilateral development banks (MDBs) must boost their green ambitions to stop carbon emissions from soaring in the most powerful economies, according to the ‘Climate Transparency Report 2021’. Covid-19 lockdowns caused carbon dioxide emissions from the energy sector to fall 6% in 2020, but a rebound of 4% is projected across the Group of 20 nations this year. Argentina, China, India and Indonesia are expected to exceed their 2019 emissions levels before next year.
October 14, 2021 by

Mantashe opposes coal ban for climate aid

Rich nations shouldn’t force South Africa to ban new coal-power projects and impose other conditions as a requirement for funding to help reduce its environmental footprint, the country’s energy minister said. Gwede Mantashe last month skipped a meeting with climate envoys from the UK, US, Germany, France and the European Union, where an initial amount of almost $5 billion in concessional loans and grants was discussed. South Africa’s environment and public enterprises ministers attended the talks, as did the deputy finance minister.
October 14, 2021 by

Eskom confirms load-shedding to be suspended on Thursday, but warns system constraints remain

Power utility Eskom on Wednesday evening confirmed that load-shedding would be suspended from 05:00 on Thursday morning, but warned that there were still significant risks to some generating units, which could force Eskom to implement load-shedding at short notice should it lose further generation capacity.

“We have used the past six days of load-shedding to conduct some repairs to generating units and to continue with the maintenance programme.

“Even though we were able to replenish emergency generation reserves, we have had to continue relying on these to support power system over this period,” the utility noted in a statement.

October 13, 2021 by

South African needs to ramp up critical minerals exploration as world decarbonises – study

The South African mining sector can remain internationally competitive and support socioeconomic development only if it drives decarbonisation and adapts to the global shift in commodity demand towards minerals used in green sectors such as renewable electricity and electric vehicles (EVs), a new study shows. However, the country will have to materially ramp up its exploration of the critical minerals required for emerging green technologies if it is to succeed in offsetting the decline in coal mining, as well as some platinum group metals (PGMs), notably palladium.
October 13, 2021 by

De Ruyter: Eskom working to avoid load-shedding during elections

Eskom is working to avoid load-shedding for the election season, says the power utility’s CEO André de Ruyter. De Ruyter was speaking during an interview with eNCA on Wednesday morning. The power utility last week Thursday introduced stage 2 load-shedding. At the time Eskom was working on returning four units at its Tutuka power station, which experienced conveyor belt failures and boiler tube leaks.
October 13, 2021 by

Ten EU countries call for the bloc to formally include nuclear in its future energy mix

Earlier this week, several newspapers across the European Union (EU) published a letter in support of nuclear energy, jointly signed by 15 Energy and Economy Ministers from ten EU countries, World Nuclear News has reported. The Ministers hailed from Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia. They jointly called for nuclear power to be formally included in the EU’s future low-carbon energy mix, and before the end of this year. (The EU now has 27 member states.) They stressed that decarbonising the EU economy required very rapid and deep changes in the bloc’s production and consumption of energy, in order to slash carbon dioxide emissions. This necessitated greatly increasing the electrification of economic and domestic activities, which would need a massive increase in electricity generation. The development of new low-carbon industries would also increase the future demand for electricity.
October 13, 2021 by

South African emergency power plan hit by new graft allegations

DNG Energy, a losing bidder for State contracts to supply emergency power in South Africa, made fresh corruption allegations against a winning bidder, Karpowership, and a government official. In an October 12 supplementary affidavit to court papers, the first of which were filed in April, South Africa-based DNG alleged that businessmen who are now partnering Turkey’s Karpowership approached the firm’s chief executive officer seeking a bribe. In exchange, they would ensure that DNG won a contract, Aldworth Mbalati, the CEO of DNG, said in the papers, adding that he spurned their offer.
October 13, 2021 by

IEA warns of more energy market volatility as transition investment lags

There is a looming risk of more turbulence ahead for energy markets, the International Energy Agency (IEA) warns in its latest World Energy Outlook publication. “The world is not investing enough to meet its future energy needs, and uncertainties over policies and demand trajectories create a strong risk of a volatile period ahead for energy markets,” the 2021 edition of the flagship report warns.
October 13, 2021 by

South Africa, Pimco conclude R3bn issuance under UNECA green energy programme

As part of its Sustainable Development Goal Seven (SDG7) Programme, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) announces that the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) and Pimco have reached terms on their issuance of R3-billion of debt securities, which signals the first closing. The SDG7 Programme, which was launched in February 2020, is aimed at deploying private capital in Africa to support the development of renewable energy.
October 12, 2021 by