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ANC offers strong endorsement of Eskom’s just energy transaction following lekgotla

The National Executive Committee (NEC) of the African National Congress (ANC) has given its backing to the just energy transaction being pursued by State-owned electricity producer Eskom. In closing remarks following the NEC’s September lekgotla, ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa said that the lekgotla welcomed the detailed planning Eskom had done for a just energy transaction at one power station, which “would ensure that workers and community wellbeing was assured and advanced in this process”.
September 7, 2021 by

Russian arctic mining project to be powered by nuclear energy

Russian civil nuclear shipping and floating nuclear power plant company Atomflot, part of the State-owned Rosatom nuclear group, has signed a preliminary agreement with mining company GDK Baimskaya to provide four small modular reactors (SMRs) to power the miner’s Baimskaya copper and gold development, World Nuclear News has reported. The project is located at a remote site in the Chukotka region of Russia’s far east arctic. (GDK Baimskaya is a subsidiary of KAZ Minerals, itself part of the …
September 6, 2021 by

Engie partners with Scatec for PV support at mine-based hydrogen plant

Renewable energy company Scatec Solar has signed a two-year lease agreement with Engie to provide a mobile plug-and-play solar photovoltaic (PV) plant at its hydrogen production plant at Anglo American Platinum’s Mokalakwena mine, in Limpopo.

Scatec launched its Release by Scatec service in September 2019 – a service through which it offers industrial players in emerging markets access to flexible, reliable and low-cost power.

September 6, 2021 by

ACWA says investor pitch well received as it gears up for IPO

ACWA Power, one of Saudi Arabia’s main vehicles for building renewable energy projects, said meetings with potential investors ahead of an initial public offering have gone “very well.” The company, half-owned by the kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund, is pushing ahead with an IPO it’s been discussing for years, CEO Paddy Padmanathan said in an interview with Bloomberg TV. Over the next five years, the company will double the amount of power it generates, mostly from renewable sources amid a global shift away from burning fossil fuels, he said.
September 6, 2021 by

Eskom CEO says carbon capture being considered in South Africa

Eskom Holdings, South Africa’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, is evaluating the use of carbon capture at power plants as part of decarbonisation plans to transform the coal-burning utility. The process that captures carbon-dioxide emissions would need to be financially viable, CEO Andre de Ruyter said in an interview on radio station 702 on Friday.
September 3, 2021 by

Ramaphosa hints at yet more reforms as he predicts ‘massive investment’ in wake of …

President Cyril Ramaphosa has described a recently gazetted amendment to Schedule 2 of the Electricity Regulation Act, opening the way for sub-100 MW grid-tied embedded generators to supply one or more customers without a licence, as a “defining moment in energy generation in our country”. Responding to a Parliamentary question on the progress being made on government’s Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan (ERRP), the President said that the reform, which was implemented in August, had been “widely welcomed, not only in our country, but also globally”.
September 3, 2021 by

Mediclinic Southern Africa enters R2bn renewables procurement deal

Diversified international private healthcare services group Mediclinic’s Southern Africa division has entered into an agreement, valued at up to £110-million, or about R2-billion, with Energy Exchange of Southern Africa to procure renewable electricity. As part of the group’s broad environmental, social and governance (ESG) strategy, Mediclinic has set an ambitious target to become carbon neutral by 2030.
September 3, 2021 by

Researchers using Joburg as live lightning research laboratory

The University of the Witwatersrand’ (Wits’) Johannesburg Lightning Research Laboratory (JLRL) is turning Johannesburg into a laboratory where live lightning events are measured and characterised through the use of high-speed cameras, direct current measurements, fast electric field measurements, field measurements and comparison with lightning location systems. To build on Wits’ pioneering research into lightning, and as part of the Wits Centenary programme that seeks to advance society for good, the JLRL has partnered with lightning protection company Dehn Africa and State-owned telecommunications company Sentech to support research into the protection of renewable energy systems from lightning.
September 3, 2021 by