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Firm hails efficiency plan’s stance on electric motors

Plan to apply the Minimum Energy Performance Standards (MEPS) for low-voltage electric motors in South Africa have been hailed by solutions provider WEG Africa as an exciting step toward energy efficiency and a lower carbon future for the industry. The Department of Trade, Industry and Competition recently announced its intention to put a stop to imports of low-efficiency motors – in the power rating range from 0.75 kW to 375 kW – in favour of motors in the efficiency class of IE3 and above.
January 26, 2024 by

Energy efficient solutions for loadshedding

South Africa’s electricity problems have left the country without power for many hours a day, causing grave difficulties for businesses and households, notes power generation and electromechanical power transmission product supplier Vert Energy. “The inability of the country’s primary electricity supplier to meet demand has called for the private sector to step up and provide solutions that help keep businesses, education facilities, hospitals and more running, in the event of power outages and loadshedding,” explains Vert Energy sales and marketing director Ryan Robertson.
January 26, 2024 by

Energy Vault enters licensing deal for gravity storage solution with SADC-focused consortium

Grid-scale energy storage solutions company Energy Vault has signed a licensing and royalty agreement with a South African consortium, established with the aim of deploying the NYSE-listed company’s gravity energy storage systems across the 16 countries that make up the Southern African Development Community (SADC) bloc. The agreement is with Gravity Energy Storage Solutions (GESSOL), an entity comprising JSE-listed construction group WBHO, iX Engineers, and Sizana Solutions, which has been partnering with Energy Vault in Southern Africa since 2019.
January 25, 2024 by

Competitiveness concerns could scupper once-in-century potential for South Africa to reindustrialise

The global and local renewable energy transition is presenting industries, and South Africa, with a once-in-a-century growth trajectory to provide products and components into the value chains of renewable energy and battery energy storage systems (BESSs). During the second quarter of 2023, more than $1.7-billion worth of solar panels, inverters and lithium-ion battery systems were imported into South Africa, and this number excludes other components and parts.
January 25, 2024 by

SolarSaver adding battery energy storage to two dairies in Creighton Valley

Solar photovoltaic (PV) installation company SolarSaver has added batteries to the existing grid-tied installation at Burnview Dairy to create a hybrid system. It will also add batteries to the Creighton Valley Cheese Company’s grid-tied installation to increase its output by 50 kW. SolarSaver completed a grid-tied solar installation at the Creighton Valley Cheese Company during 2020.
January 25, 2024 by

Grid constraint likely to translate to a renewables price premium, Magoro warns

Independent Power Producer (IPP) Office head Bernard Magoro has signalled that the projects bid during the current seventh renewables procurement bid window could carry a price premium, as bidders adjust to the spatial realities that have arisen as a result of the country’s prevailing grid constraints. Through the bid window, which was launched in December, government is seeking to procure 3 200 MW of onshore wind and 1 800 MW of solar photovoltaic (PV) capacity and a bid submission deadline of the end of April has been set.
January 24, 2024 by

ReElement Technologies signs MoU with Afrivolt to set up African battery, EV supply chain

Nasdaq-listed American Resources Corporation’s ReElement Technologies has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with energy storage company Afrivolt to establish a lithium-battery and electric vehicle (EV) manufacturing ecosystem in Africa, with a specific focus on West Africa. Afrivolt aims to develop large industrial projects to support the build-out of Africa’s regional and global lithium-ion battery supply chains.
January 24, 2024 by

Aqora becomes Afrivolt, aims for battery cell manufacturing in Cape Town

South African energy company Aqora has rebranded to become Afrivolt, says MD Deshan Naidoo. The firm’s goal, however, remains the same – opening a lithium-ion cell gigafactory in South Africa, able to produce anodes, cathodes and lithium-ion batteries for stationary storage applications and, in the medium term, for electric vehicles (EVs). Procuring and processing the minerals and metals needed for the factory within Africa has become more of a longer-term plan, adds Naidoo, with cell …
January 24, 2024 by