Author Archive for: Engineering News

Creamer Media’s Chanel de Bruyn speaks to Engineering News Editor Terence Creamer about frameworks that have been put in place to allow companies that use electricity intensively to apply for an incentivised tariff.

In a report by advisory firm Wood Mackenzie titled ‘Sub-Saharan Africa’s (SSAs) Gas Opportunity: Are Governments Doing Enough’, fiscal and valuations principal analyst Greg Roddick notes that given the lack of reliable and affordable energy in SSA, gas should be playing a vital role.  However, he elaborates that under-investment in infrastructure and high costs, combined with customers’ inability to pay, have been fundamental barriers to date. Uncertain regulatory frameworks and inadequate governance have also hindered market development.

With the current liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects under way in Mozambique, Mozambique Oil and Gas Chamber executive chairman Florival Mucave notes that government needs to ensure that there are rules and regulations in place to encourage local participation. Mozambique has a unique opportunity to drive its economic growth through the development of its natural resources. However, this will be successful only if it is beneficial to the local economy, in terms of facilitating goods and services, and job creation, he says. 

Energy storage manufacturer Solar MD has a backlog of 14 MWh in terms of battery orders, and a backlog of 1 200 orders for the Logger V2, the company’s monitoring and control system. “This demand speaks volumes to the critical renewable-energy gap in South Africa, particularly with regard to intelligent energy storage solutions,” says Solar MD CEO Kaloyan Dimov.

The relatively low value of carbon tax in South Africa, and numerous allowances that government made available in year one of the Carbon Tax Act’s implementation, which took effect in June 2019, have resulted in there being little incentive currently for solar energy, technology company EDS Systems business development head Eckart Zollner tells Engineering News. The carbon tax initially applies only to scope 1 emitters in the first phase of the carbon tax roll-out, from June 1, 2019, to December 31, 2022. Scope 1 emitters are those who are responsible for direct emissions from an owned or controlled source – such as those produced by burning fossil fuels. Scope 2 emissions are indirect emissions that have resulted from the generation of purchased energy and these will be taxed in the second phase of the roll-out, from 2023 to 2030.