Solarise Africa commissions 1 MW solar plant for Northern Cape farm

Energy-as-a-service company Solarise Africa has commissioned a 1 MW ground-mounted solar installation at the Zuurgat Farm, near Hopetown, in the Northern Cape, for farming enterprise Genade Boerdery. The newly commissioned solar system comprises 1 976 Longi 550 W solar modules and 8 Huawei 115 kW inverters, and form a robust grid-tied setup that has been designed to maximise reliability and efficiency.
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Eskom insists delayed return of Koeberg Unit 1 won’t increase loadshedding risk

Eskom has announced a delay to the return of Koeberg Unit 1 from another extended maintenance outage, but insists that the risk of loadshedding this winter has not increased as a result. The unit was shut early in the year for the second phase of its long-term operation maintenance programme, which was a requirement of its 20-year life extension granted by the National Nuclear Regulator (NNR) for the unit last year.
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Vodacom Business, Ariston & Sensor Networks partner on smart geysers

Vodacom Business, Sensor Networks and Ariston have announced a strategic partnership to bring smart geyser technology to the forefront of South Africa’s efforts to improve stability of the national electricity grid and reduce household energy consumption. This collaboration builds on Vodacom’s nationwide connectivity, which is already powering Sensor Networks’ smart devices in homes across the country, Sensor Network says in a statement.
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AMSA may initiate wind down of longs unit well ahead of Sept deferral deadline

ArcelorMittal South Africa (AMSA) says it may begin taking operational steps to prepare for the wind down of its beleaguered long-products business well ahead of the current September 30 deadline – a timeframe set after the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) extended a R1.68-billion interest-free loan on March 31 to defer its closure by six months. In a trading statement, the JSE-listed company reported that the IDC facility had been fully drawn down to enable the longs business to continue to operate and fund its working capital and associated financial needs to the end of September.
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Solar PV installations expected to recover strongly this year after marked decline

The South African Photovoltaic Industry Association (SAPVIA) is expecting the domestic market to recover this year to the record installation levels achieved two years ago, following a marked slowdown last year. CEO Dr Rethabile Melamu tells Engineering News that installations fell by more than 50% to about 1 GW in 2024/25, covering the period from April 1 to March 31, from 2.4 GW in 2023/24.
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Energy investments could increase SEZ attractiveness

Strategic investment in industrial energy ecosystems is essential to enhance cost effectiveness, global competitiveness and the resilience of South Africa’s special economic zones (SEZs), thereby improving their long-term viability and appeal to manufacturers, says financial solutions provider Investec Sustainable Solutions technical adviser De Wet Taljaard. For SEZs to be effective in reindustrialisation and to help ensure that local entities become and remain globally competitive, reindustrialisation must be based on renewable-energy solutions, energy efficiency and sustainability, he asserts.
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Ramokgopa outlines plan for blended-finance structure to meet 2030 universal access goal

Electricity and Energy Minister Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa has provided an outline of a revised universal access strategy that employs a blended financing approach to electrify, by 2030, the more than 1.6-million households in South Africa that still do not have access to electricity. Speaking in Parliament, Ramokgopa said the new model would move beyond the traditional grid-only approach that had hitherto dominated South Africa’s multi-decade electrification programme, and include micro- and off-grid technologies.
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Zambian company developing solar energy projects to address country’s energy shortfall

Zambia’s Copperbelt Energy Corporation (CEC) expects to significantly expand the country’s renewable-energy capacity, by adding a projected 800-MW-plus of solar energy to the national grid, by the end of 2027. This programme is in line with the country’s efforts to diversify its energy sources in the face of climate change-induced shortfalls in its hydropower generation.   Zambia has always had predominantly green energy, in the form of hydropower from the Kariba dam. When the dam is full, Zambia’s share of the electricity generated is 3 GW, while the country’s demand is about 2.5 GW. But growing aridity in the Kafue and Zambesi rivers’ catchment areas has resulted in low dam levels, cutting its generating capacity significantly. Currently, Zambia is suffering from a generation shortfall of some 1.3 GW.
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Grid, market and skills identified by energy council as key reform priorities

Energy Council of South Africa CEO James Mackay has highlighted three priorities for the organisation, whose public and private member companies have seconded some 300 professionals to support the  implementation of government’s Energy Action Plan since its launch in 2022 to tackle intense loadshedding and to support electricity reform. In a statement released following the council’s recent AGM, Mackay again warned that the risk of loadshedding persisted, because new generation was not coming online at the pace required.
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Banks plough billions into coal ‘as if Glasgow never happened’

Global banks channeled more than $385-billion to the coal power industry over the past three years, with annual flows increasing last year from 2023, according to analysis by a group of nonprofits. At the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow in 2021, almost 200 governments agreed to phase down coal and many of the world’s largest commercial banks committed to decarbonize their portfolios. Four years on, those pledges have failed to make a dent on financial flows.
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