A total of 56 wind and solar projects have been submitted by prospective bidders under the sixth bid window (BW6) of South Africa’s Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPPP), which has been expanded to 4 200 MW from an initial allocation of 2 600 MW. The bids, which are split across five provinces, including 24 in the Western Cape province alone, have a combined capacity of more than 9 600 MW across 23 wind and 33 solar photovoltaic (PV) bids.
Eskom Holdings’ new chairperson Mpho Makwana said the board isn’t planning any immediate changes to management and will take between 30 and 60 days to assess the company’s power plants. Makwana, who was appointed along with almost all of the board this month, said the plants’ perfromance will be looked at to see what needs to be done to make them operational at an average of 75% of the time, a target set by Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan. Currently their so-called electricity availability factor, a measure of when they can produce electricity, is less than 60%.
Diversified mining company Anglo American, in partnership with EDF Renewables, on Tuesday announces an agreement to form a new jointly owned company, Envusa Energy, to develop a regional renewable energy ecosystem in South Africa. The energy ecosystem is also expected to catalyse economic activity in South Africa’s renewable energy sector, supporting the country’s broader just energy transition. It follows the two companies signing a memorandum of understanding in March to explore the ecosystem’s development, designed to meet Anglo American’s operational power requirements in South Africa and support the resilience of the local electricity supply systems and the wider decarbonisation of energy in the country.
A landmark $8.5-billion deal to help wean South Africa off its dependence on coal is hanging in the balance amid fraught negotiations with rich donor countries over how the funds should be spent. The climate finance deal, unveiled at UN-led talks in Glasgow last year, was hailed as a prototype for helping other coal-dependent developing countries transition to cleaner energy sources. Its success or failure could have a knock-on effect at next month’s COP27 summit in Egypt, which is expected to focus on the financing needs of poorer countries adapting to a warming atmosphere.
Economic and energy advisory company Meridian Economics is warning that the implementation of Eskom’s proposed retail tariff plan could severely disincentivise investment into the large distributed generation plants required to reduce, or end load-shedding, in the coming few years. The plan, which the utility says is necessary to rebalance variable and fixed charges in light of technology changes under way in the sector, has already met with stiff opposition from some residential customers and opposition political parties after the plan was submitted to the National Energy Regulator of South Africa for approval.
Although not programmed to do so, South African Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe addressed the Ministerial and VIP Symposium of the Africa Oil Week conference and Green Energy Africa Summit, being held in Cape Town, on Monday. Mantashe was programmed to deliver a keynote address at the conference on Tuesday.
A study by global management consultancy Kearney has noted that Southern Africa, which has favourable conditions for renewable energy production, will be able to store renewable energy and export it to areas where renewable energy production is technically or economically limited. “The world’s steadily growing demand for hydrogen is expected to exceed supply by 2030, making now an ideal time to invest. Although Southern Africa has a major opportunity to produce green hydrogen, the region’s demand is projected to be lower than the demand centres in Europe and Asia,” says Kearney partner Prashaen Reddy.
Industry nonprofit the Energy Intensive Users Group (EIUG) welcomes the “overdue reconstitution of the Eskom board” and says “the new board seems complete and well balanced in terms of its skills and experience”. The previous board was “heavily handicapped” with a number of vacancies, which severely affected its skill sets and, thereby, added an enormous task to the existing directors, it adds.
Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan unveiled the names of the new Eskom board, which includes five engineers and a trade unionist, and which is to be led by Mpho Makwana, who was appointed executive chairperson at the utility in late 2009 following a previous leadership crisis. The board, whose three-year appointment begins on October 1, comprises 13 nonexecutive directors, including Dr Rod Crompton who has been retained from the previous board, and two executive directors, CEO André de Ruyter and CFO Calib Cassim.
The Southern African Biogas Industry Association (Sabia) will introduce its updated business plan and path to reach its 2030 goals at its ‘Vision 2030 – building a sustainable Southern African biogas market’ round table next month. Hosted by Sabia, it will include a discussion by representatives from the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), global industry body the World Biogas Association, as well as government and financial representatives in the environmental space.
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