Oil giant Royal Dutch Shell will purchase African solar provider Daystar Power as it expands its global renewables portfolio, the companies said on Wednesday. Shell is one of the most influential oil producers in Africa, but the Daystar purchase is its first power acquisition on the continent, underscoring its mandate to cut its greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030.
The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) has welcomed Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan’s plan to restructure and reconstitute the board of State-owned power utility Eskom.
The Minister announced on September 27 that government would soon start the process of restructuring the board, following a review of the board whose term expired in 2021 and was extended subject to a review.
Germany and France are in talks with South Africa’s National Treasury over about €600-million to help it transition away from the use of coal. The loans may form the first part of $8.5 billion in financing offered to the country during last November’s global climate summit. The money will go some way toward addressing the funding needs of the beleaguered national power utility, Eskom Holdings, as it prepares to close down some of its coal-fired plants and re-purpose them for the production of green energy.
The South African Local Government Association (Salga) says it is taking decisive action to close the electricity gap and help municipalities take advantage of the policy shift in energy generation, with regulations having changed to allow municipalities to procure power independently to ensure energy security of supply. Several municipalities are already in the process of procuring power independently.
Eskom has confirmed that the change to the schedule for replacing the six steam generators at the Koeberg nuclear power station, will have an impact on the cost of the life-extension project, which was originally estimated at R20-billion. This confirmation was provided during a joint meeting of the portfolio committees on mineral resources and energy and on public enterprises, convened to deliberate on a complaint made by the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) regarding what the union claims to have been the unfair suspension of three senior Koeberg employees.
Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan has announced that, following the finalisation of an extensive review, the board of State-owned Eskom would soon be reconstituted and restructured. Gordhan has met with members of the Eskom board whose term expired in 2021 and was extended subject to a review and has said that they will be informed of the outcome of the process in due course.
Integrated technology company Rheinmetall launched its newly designed and pilot-phase mobile green hydrogen production and storage platform at the Africa Aerospace and Defence Expo on September 21.
The turnkey and modular solution offered by Rheinmetall group subsidiary Rheinmetall Denel Munition (RDM) in South Africa provides electricity for stationary and mobile infrastructure in civil and industrial settings, as well as for expedition and outdoor applications.
For South Africa to make real progress towards the goal of universal enabling access to electricity nine-million households should receive 350 kWh of free electricity each month, a new Public Affairs Research Institute publication argues. Titled ‘Hungry for Electricity’, the book’s co-authors, Dr Tracy Ledger and Mahlatse Rampedi, argue that universal access to electricity is the single most important development intervention.
South Africa’s struggling State-owned utility Eskom will extend power interruptions on the national grid until Thursday, the company said on Twitter. Stage 3 interruptions, meaning 3 000 MW are removed from the grid, will run from midnight on Sunday to 4 pm Monday and then daily until Thursday.
Amid intense load-shedding, which has been under way continuously since early September and has at times been implemented at Stage 6, President Cyril Ramaphosa has warned that there is “no quick fix” to the problem, which he says has “a long history”. Writing in his weekly newsletter a week after having cut short a working visit abroad, notably his participation in the 77th Session of the United Nations General Assembly, the President acknowledge widespread public anger, which he described as “wholly justified”.
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