The National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) has invited public comment on it providing concurrence with new Ministerial determinations allowing for the procurement of 18 791 MW of new electricity capacity catered for under the 2019 edition of the Integrated Resource Plan (IRP 2019), which covers the period to 2030. However, the deadline set for the submission of comments is a day after the current bid submission deadline for the sixth bid window (BW6) of the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme, which requires a new determination for solar photovoltaic (PV) to enlarge the round to 5 200 MW.
Power technology provider Cummins invests in many corporate responsibility initiatives (CRI) to assist in increasing access to technical careers for young girls from school level onwards. These initiatives focus on equitable access to education, economic empowerment, legal rights and safety.
The continued flight of highly skilled and experienced technical staff from State-owned power utility Eskom to the local private sector and overseas power utilities is concerning, but also flattering, says Stellenbosch University engineering dean Professor Wikus van Niekerk. “These engineers, which have been trained by quality universities, such as the universities of Stellenbosch, Cape Town, Pretoria and the Witwatersrand, have obtained practical experience on various systems after working at Eskom for several years and are now sought after globally,” he adds.
State-owned power utility Eskom is on track to ensure that the country’s electricity sector achieves net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, with an increase in sustainable jobs, should its Strategy 2035 continue to be effectively implemented, says Eskom Just Energy Transition (JET) GM Mandy Rambharos. “Although it is a joint responsibility of all sectors to contributing to decarbonising South Africa, decarbonising the electricity sector, which contributes 41% of the country’s carbon emissions, will have a significant positive impact overall.”
South Africa needs to promptly implement small interventions to ease the pressure on the national electricity grid, requiring an investment of between R50-billion and R100-billion, while longer-term initiatives to stabilise the power system are rolled out, says Stellenbosch University Faculty of Engineering Centre for Renewable and Sustainable Energy Studies director Professor Sampson Mampwheli. “Eskom has in the past implemented a successful energy efficiency and demand-side management programme between 2008 and 2011. By reintroducing the energy efficiency and demand-side management programmes following government’s declaration of a national power emergency, the country can reduce pressure on the grid within six to eight months as it waits for new generation capacity to come online.”
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has affirmed that nuclear energy is as important to the country’s ‘Green Transformation’ (GX) as is renewable energy. He was addressing, via video, the second meeting of the country’s Green Transformation Implementation Council, “World Nuclear News” has reported. “[R]enewable energy and nuclear power are decarbonised energies that are indispensable for promoting GX,” affirmed Kishida. He asked the Council to submit a report, by the end of this year, “on all measures, including the institutional framework for evaluating these as options for the future, and how the parties concerned should make efforts to further deepen public understanding”. The report should present “concrete conclusions”.
AltX- and Aim-listed Kibo Energy’s share price on the JSE rose by more than 9% on August 25, after announcing that it had started a request for proposals (RFP) process to investigate the feasibility of replacing fossil fuel (coal) with renewable biofuel. This followed an extensive review of the company’s operations and assets, with the company planning to dispose of all its coal mining assets, but still retaining the associated energy generation projects through the introduction of innovative biofuel technology.
Nigeria needs at least $10-billion in additional funding per year to reach net zero by 2060 in a plan that would involve gas as a transition fuel, officials said while launching the nation’s energy transition plan on Wednesday. The effort aims also to expand power access to all of Nigeria’s 200 million citizens by 2030, a move officials said was essential to ensure a fair transition for developing nations.
Even though government paved the way for municipalities to generate or procure their own electricity from independent power producers (IPPs) a little under two years ago, only 25% of them are equipped with either a basic or comprehensive small-scale embedded generation (SSEG) process, or are putting one in place.
A further 25% of municipalities do not have the internal capacity to establish or manage these processes, but may come do so with some support, while the remaining 50% of municipalities are not in a state to handle any additional responsibility, owing to long-standing financial difficulty or mismanagement issues, Sustainable Energy Africa director Mark Borchers noted this week.
A homegrown expandable minigrid solution that researchers at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) have been developing, testing and refining for several years has now been fully commercialised to be marketed and sold locally and throughout Africa as the Peco Powerbrick. The innovation is based on the pioneering work of academics and students at the university’s School of Electrical and Information Engineering who, under the direction of Professor Willie Cronje, have been working on an expandable and affordable offgrid solution for low-income African households since 2014.
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