The French and German development banks, AFD and KfW, have signed agreements with the South African government to each extend €300-million in concessional financing to support the country’s transition to a cleaner energy system that is less reliant on coal. The €600-million is the first to be confirmed under the $8.5-billion Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) announced at COP26 in November 2021, and follows the publication by South Africa of the Just Energy Transition Investment Plan (JET-IP) ahead of COP27, which is currently under way in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt.
A consortium of dozens of research nonprofits on Wednesday launched a free online platform that details greenhouse gas emissions around the world across 20 economic sectors. Climate Trace, which can be viewed on a web browser, includes a zoomable world map that displays and ranks the dirtiest 72 000 power plants, oil refineries, airports, ships and more. The group used satellite imagery and machine learning as well as more conventional techniques to build what it says is the largest available source of greenhouse gas emissions data. “The sources of emissions data that are available now are not granular enough, or comprehensive enough, to use as the basis for decisions,” former US Vice President Al Gore said in an interview. “And so what we are finding is that there is a ravenous hunger for accurate data.” Gore, who has fundraised for the group, is expected to introduce the platform on Wednesday at COP27, the UN climate talks in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt.
There is a definite skills gap in the country’s renewable energy and associated industries, as South Africa looks to meet ambitious 2030 greenhouse-gas emission reduction and renewable energy targets, and the country must prioritise identifying what is lacking across the entire value chain and use certain mechanism to ensure that this gap is bridged. This was the key message from speakers in CTU Training Solutions’ webinar, held in collaboration with the South African Photovoltaic Industry Association (SAPVIA) and the South African Wind Energy Association (SAWEA) on November 8.
South Africa’s R1.5-trillion just energy transition investment plan has been endorsed by the International Partners Group (IPG), which includes UK, US, Germany, France and the EU. The countries which initially pledged $8.5-billion to aid South Africa’s shift from coal, also plan to make available an additional R10-billion, according to a joint statement. The investment plan – R1.5-trillion over five years – was formally handed over by President Cyril Ramaphosa to the IPG at COP27, in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt on Monday.
Eskom says the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria has granted an order allowing it to attach R1.3-billion of the Emfuleni municipality’s assets for its “continued failure” to settle its accounts and arrears with the power utility. Eskom said on Monday that following the October ruling, it had started taking steps to recover some of the money from the Vaal municipality, including attaching bank accounts and moveable assets
Stage 2 loadshedding will start at 09:00 on Tuesday, and will be implemented until further notice, Eskom has announced. “This is necessitated by a breakdown of a Duvha generating unit and the delay in returning to service another Duvha unit.
The Gauteng High Court has set aside the National Energy Regulator of South Africa’s (Nersa’s) most recent evaluation of Eskom’s regulatory asset base (RAB), a decision that has potential significant implications for a pending tariff determination. The State-owned utility took the regulator’s RAB decision on legal review after Nersa more than halved Eskom’s RAB to R551-billion relative to the R1.25-trillion outlined in its revenue application for the 2022/23 financial year.
Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan welcomed World Bank president David Malpass to State power utility Eskom’s Komati power station following the bank’s approval of a R9-billion ($497-million) concessional loan to repurpose and repower the coal-fired power station into one which uses renewable energy and storage solutions.
The World Bank earlier this month and at the request of the South African government, announced that it will provide a concessional loan towards South Africa’s just energy transition (JET), of which the Komati project will be the first step.
The Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) has confirmed that the deadline for outstanding projects named as preferred bids under both the risk mitigation and bid window five (BW5) of the renewables programme have been given yet another extension beyond the October 31 deadline communicated previously. In response to questions posed by Engineering News regarding the status of the projects and whether the bid bonds had been called, the department said it had received representations from the remaining 22 preferred bidders under BW5, as well as the eight preferred bidders selected under the Risk Mitigation Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (RMIPPPP) regarding their readiness to sign the necessary agreements.
Engineers from renewables company Scatec have started work on a large project in the Northern Cape, which forms part of the Risk Mitigation Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (RMIPPPP). Once operational, the project will have a total solar capacity of 540 MW and battery storage capacity of 225 MW/ 1 140 MWh, and provide 150 MW of dispatchable power under a 20-year power purchase agreement.
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