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First South African city readies to seek private power generation

Ethekwini, the South African municipality that includes the port city of Durban, plans to seek initial proposals for the construction of 400 MW of power generation. The so-called request for information will be the first by a South African municipal area since the government said last year that cities could buy electricity from providers other than Eskom Holdings, the State utility that’s subjected the country to intermittent outages for over a decade.
July 1, 2021 by

Africa’s top emitter seeks $10bn for shift from coal

South African State power utility Eskom, Africa’s biggest greenhouse-gas emitter, is pitching a $10-billion plan to global lenders that would see it shut the vast majority of its coal-fired plants by 2050 and embrace renewable energy. Discussions have already started with development finance institutions like the World Bank and the African Development Bank, a senior Eskom official told Reuters.
June 30, 2021 by

Britain to accelerate its phase-out of coal-fired power stations

The UK government announced on Wednesday that the phasing out of the use of coal to generate electricity in Great Britain will be brought forward by a full year, to October 2024. (The only coal-fired power plant in Northern Ireland was already scheduled to close by 2024.) This is part of the British government’s programme to decarbonise the country’s electricity supply. To this end, it will introduce new legislation in Parliament as soon as practical. London is also urging all other countries to accelerate their phasing out of the use of coal for electricity generation.
June 30, 2021 by

New learning hub aims to equip social practitioners to raise impact of IPP upliftment programmes

A new learning and innovation hub to develop the skills and knowledge of social-performance practitioners in South Africa’s renewable-energy sector has been officially launched. Known as the Initiative for Social Performance in Renewable Energy, or INSPIRE, the venture aims to improving the effectiveness and sustainability of the enterprise and socioeconomic development initiatives undertaken by independent power producers (IPPs).
June 30, 2021 by

Hydropower important for storage, just transition to low-carbon electricity – IEA

Hydropower’s role in achieving a clean energy transition and in supporting the faster expansion of solar and wind generation capacity, is undervalued, the International Energy Agency’s (IEA’s) inaugural ‘Hydropower Special Market’ report states. Hydropower has a key role in the transition to clean energy not only through the massive quantities of low-carbon electricity it produces, but also because of its unmatched capabilities for providing flexibility and storage. Many hydropower plants can ramp their electricity generation up and down very rapidly compared with other power plants such as nuclear, coal and natural gas, the IEA says.
June 30, 2021 by

Biggest China bank walks away from $3bn Zimbabwe coal plan

China’s biggest bank has dumped plans to fund a $3-billion coal-fired power plant in Zimbabwe, in a blow to a two-decade effort to develop the project, according to a coalition of 32 environmental groups. Industrial and Commercial Bank of China told Go Clean ICBC, which includes environmental activist group 350.org, that it wouldn’t fund the 2 800 MW Sengwa coal project that RioEnergy, a unit of RioZim, is seeking to develop in Northern Zimbabwe.
June 30, 2021 by

Zimbabwe faces lengthy power outages after surge hits plants

Zimbabwe faces prolonged power outages after a surge in electricity imports from neighboring South Africa overloaded its network and caused generating plants to fail, Energy Minister Soda Zhemu said. The surge caused a nationwide blackout in the early hours of Monday, as it affected output at the Kariba hydropower plant and the coal-fired Hwange facility, Zhemu said by phone from the capital, Harare.
June 29, 2021 by

Progressive moves to ban organic waste from landfills seen as key driver of South African …

Legislation curtailing and, ultimately, banning the diversion of organic waste to municipal landfills is expected to support the development of South Africa’s biogas industry, which remains nascent with only 28 such projects having be built and commissioned to date. South Africa National Waste Management Strategy of 2020 sets a long-term goal of ‘zero waste’ to landfills and includes targets of lowering waste diversions to landfills by 45% within five years, 55% in 10 years and 70% in 15 years.
June 29, 2021 by