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Discovery Green inks 10yr PPA to supply Afrox’s Kuilsrivier ASU with renewable energy

Industrial gases and welding products company Afrox has signed a ten-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with renewable energy trading company Discovery Green to supply renewable energy to Afrox’s Kuilsriver air separation unit (ASU), in Cape Town. Discovery Green will provide the ASU with about 28 GWh/y of renewable electricity under the agreement, starting in April 2028, from a diversified portfolio of wind and solar assets across the Western Cape, Mpumalanga and the Free State.

South Africa poised for record IPP deployments in 2026

South Africa’s utility-scale renewables and battery storage market is poised for a record year of installations, a new research note produced by the Power Futures Lab at the UCT Graduate School of Business shows. Authors Dr Olakunle Alao and Dr Wikus Kruger state that six projects with a combined capacity of 1 787 MW had already advanced to financial close by April 30, while a further 27 projects, representing 3 575 MW, are poised to achieve that milestone by year-end.

NTCSA, IDC seek to catalyse localisation on back of big grid roll-out

The National Transmission Company South Africa (NTCSA) and the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) have signed a memorandum of understanding aimed at unlocking industrial financing to NTCSA-verified suppliers and contractors involved in the expansion of South Africa’s electricity transmission network. In a joint statement, the two State-owned entities indicated that they would seek to use the funding to stimulate supplier development, localisation and industrialisation, with a particular focus on commodities such as transformers, insulators, hardware, transmission steel, conductors, and broader grid infrastructure construction.

Smart farming boosts efficiency, cuts energy use

A  team of agricultural experts, part of industrial solutions provider BMG, will offer local farmers sustainability solutions focused on effective food production through its ‘Boer Slim’, or Smart Farming, initiative. BMG agricultural manager Carlo Beukes says the initiative assists farmers with cost-efficient solutions to improve crop output, enhance operational efficiency through reduced power consumption and minimise downtime through practical maintenance programmes.

Shortlists of nuclear regulator board candidates released by Parliamentary Committee

Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Electricity and Energy has released the list of 26 candidates that it has shortlisted for interviews, to fill vacancies on the board of the National Nuclear Regulator (NNR). Four of these were candidates for the community representative and 22 were candidates for the labour representative. “The [NNR] is a regulatory authority established as a juristic person under Section 3 of the Nuclear Regulator Act, 1999,” explained the committee. “The NNR’s mandate is to regulate, monitor, and enforce safety standards to achieve safe operating conditions, prevent nuclear accidents, and mitigate the consequences of such accidents. This ensures the protection of workers, the public, property, and the environment against the potential harmful effects of ionizing radiation and radioactive materials.”

South Africa film sets ditch diesel in green energy shift

Solar panels are replacing diesel generators on some major film sets in South Africa, as streaming giants come under growing pressure to clean up one of the film industry’s dirtiest habits – its addiction to diesel generators. Netflix shot the second season of its hit show “One Piece” in Cape Town, its biggest production in Africa to date and the first to be filmed using a solar-powered base camp for off-grid electricity during a shoot.

Egypt aiming for massive expansion in solar power capacity over next decade

Egypt was opting big time for solar photovoltaic (PV) energy, to both expand and diversify its energy matrix, UK-based data analysis and intelligence company GlobalData has highlighted, in its most recent report, “Egypt Power Market Trends and Analysis by Capacity, Generation, Transmission, Distribution, Regulations, Key Players and Forecast to 2035”. The country was accelerating its deployment of solar PV power, from a total capacity of some 2.9 GW last year to a target of 34.3 GW by 2035. …

Dimsum Energy, Goldwind Africa partner to develop Eastern Cape renewables pipeline

Independent renewable energy developer Dimsum Energy has entered into a strategic partnership with global renewable energy company Goldwind Africa to develop Energy Fields, a large-scale portfolio of renewable energy projects in the Esstern Cape, targeting more than 2 GW of wind, solar and battery storage capacity. Through this partnership, the parties intend to develop and build utility-scale wind and solar projects in high-resource areas of the Eastern Cape, integrate battery energy storage systems to enhance grid stability and dispachability, support corporate power purchase agreements (PPAs) for industrial users and strengthen local supply chains and skills development.