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Three-way talks on Ethiopian dam reach new impasse

Negotiations between Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt, in a long-running dispute over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) on the Blue Nile, have reached a new impasse, the three countries said on Sunday. “We cannot continue this vicious cycle of circular talks indefinitely,” Sudanese irrigation minister Yasir Abbas said in a statement.
January 11, 2021 by

First application made for power-tariff relief under new DMRE frameworks

The first application for tariff relief provided for under the Negotiated Pricing Agreement (NPA) frameworks published late last year by the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) has been submitted to the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) for authorisation. Nersa tells Engineering News that it will follow its normal approval process and will make a determination within a period of 120 days if all the information has been submitted.
January 11, 2021 by

Eskom suspends rolling blackouts as demand ebbs

South African electricity company Eskom said on Friday it was suspending rolling power cuts implemented this week as demand had dropped ahead of the weekend. Eskom, which supplies about 95 percent of the country’s electricity mainly through coal, however urged consumers to continue using the resource sparingly as the system remained vulnerable and unstable.
January 8, 2021 by

BioTherm’s Excelsior Wind Energy Facility has started commercial operations

Pan-African renewable power producer company BioTherm Energy, backed by emerging market investor Actis, has announced the official start of operations at its Excelsior Wind Energy Facility at the end of 2020. This marks the completion of its third Independent Power Producer (IPP) project in South Africa during the year as part of the fourth round of the government’s Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme, boasting a combined generating capacity of 165 MW.
January 7, 2021 by

Trilateral partnership MoU signed to develop flow battery technology for shipping

Integrated green technology company VanadiumCorp Resource has entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for a trilateral partnership with Conoship International Projects from the Netherlands and Vega Reederei and Partners from Germany. Key engineering work is planned to commercially develop next-generation vanadium redox flow-battery (RFB) technology and high-energy-density electrolyte technologies for marine propulsion applications.
January 7, 2021 by

Eskom to implement Stage 2 load-shedding on Wednesday, Thursday nights

State-owned power utility Eskom will be implementing Stage 2 load-shedding between 22:00 and 05:00 on January 6 and 7. The load-shedding is necessary to recover and preserve the emergency generation reserves that have been used to support the system during the week following the earlier-than-planned shutdown of Koeberg power station’s Unit 1 and other units whose return to service has been delayed, the utility notes.
January 6, 2021 by

Assessment tool helps developers minimise wind turbine risk to eagles

Researchers from the Fitzpatrick Institute of African Ornithology (Fitztitute) at the University of Cape Town (UCT), HawkWatch International and the University of Amsterdam have developed a new tool that offers developers more accurate guidance on where to safely build wind farms to prevent birds of prey being struck by wind turbines. UCT points out in a statement that the rapid uptake of wind energy globally offers hope of a transition toward sustainable renewable energy, but also presents a real threat to soaring birds of prey, particularly the Verreaux’s Eagle.
January 6, 2021 by

World Bank warns of extreme poverty setback as South Africa is buffeted by Covid

The World Bank expects the South African economy to recover by 3.3% in 2021 and return to a “near potential pace” of 1.7% in 2022 after contracting by an estimated 7.8% during Covid-afflicted 2020. However, it warns in its flagship Global Economic Prospects report, published on Tuesday, that the pandemic has precipitated a dramatic fall in per capita income, which has pushed tens of million more people in South Africa and the rest of Sub-Saharan Africa into extreme poverty.
January 5, 2021 by