Water stress is forcing the global energy sector to redesign cooling infrastructure to manage declining water availability, research published by Wood Mackenzie reveals. Thermoelectric, nuclear and hydro plants produced 80% of global power in 2025, and all depend on water for cooling.
In this article, ENGIE South Africa renewables and batteries MD Sanjeev Mungroo writes that the success of South Africa’s electricity reform depends on the expansion of the transmission grid, as it is central to ensuring a competitive electricity market.
Diversified natural resources company Exxaro Resources and State-owned Eskom have signed a new long-term coal supply agreement (CSA), securing the continued supply of coal from Exxaro’s Matla mine to the Matla power station until November 2043. Matla mine first entered into a CSA with Eskom on July 1, 1983, with the agreement originally set for a period of 40 years.
Exploration is the start of any mining value chain and increasing investment in exploration is fundamental to South Africa using its mineral resources to drive development of its industries and economy, mining leaders said during the sixth edition of the South Africa Investment Conference, on March 31. South Africa has mined its mineral resources on an industrial scale for more than a century, but has forgotten how to fund and sustain exploration. It needs to reintroduce exploration into its DNA, said mining industry organisation Minerals Council South Africa CEO Mzila Mthenjane.
Without regional trade, South Africa’s market will remain shallower, more volatile and less resilient to future power supply shocks, writes Africa GreenCo co-founder and chief commercial officer Cathy Oxby.
The City of Cape Town has issued an energy trader tender that targets the procurement of 500 MW through power purchase agreements (PPAs), spanning one to ten years, from a variety of power generation technologies, including solar. Interested parties have until May 13 to respond to this tender, aimed at diversifying the city’s energy mix and protecting it against Eskom’s loadshedding schedule and the utility’s rising electricity charges.
Global renewable energy capacity increased by 15.5%, or 692 GW, year-on-year to 5 149 GW in 2025, intergovernmental organisation the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) has revealed. Its ‘Renewable Capacity Statistics 2026’ report also shows that renewable energy dominated the total capacity expansion in 2025 at an 85.6% share, while non-renewables continued to account for a smaller share of additions.
Investment commitments by South African and international renewables investors featured prominently at the sixth South Africa Investment Conference, with combined pledges of more than R50-billion announced. In addition, green energy also featured strongly in an energy-related investment prospectus released by government at the event, where a new R2-trillion investment target was set for the period to 2030.
During the South Africa Investment Conference on March 31, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana and Public Works and Infrastructure Minister Dean Macpherson spoke about how the government was supporting greater investment by private-sector players in the economy. Godongwana emphasised that a reliance on monopolies in an economy meant that, if there was a problem with a monopoly, the entire sector it served was challenged.
President Cyril Ramaphosa used the 2026 edition of the South Africa Investment Conference (SAIC) to highlight the new prospects being opened to domestic and foreign investors by the country’s ongoing economic reforms, which he described as “irreversible”. The sixth edition of the SAIC drew 1 200 delegates from 50 countries and is the first such gathering to be hosted since 2023, as well as the first since the formation of the multi-party Government of National Unity, which Ramaphosa leads.
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