Ethiopia began producing electricity on Sunday from its Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), a multibillion-dollar hydropower plant on the River Nile that neighbours Sudan and Egypt have worried will cause water shortages downstream. After flicking a digital switch to turn on the turbines in the first phase of the project, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed sought to assure those nations that his country did not wish to harm their interests.
At their summit meeting in Moscow on Wednesday, one of the areas of discussion between the Presidents of Brazil and Russia, Jair Bolsonaro and Vladimir Putin respectively, was cooperation in the field of civil nuclear energy and technology. The one-on-one meeting between the two men reportedly lasted nearly two hours. According to the subsequently issued joint statement, both were determined to reinforce the “strategic partnership” between the two countries. “The Heads of State stressed the vast potential for the development of cooperation and new business initiatives in the field of energy, emphasising the two countries’ complementarity in [the] oil and gas industry, in ensuring energy efficiency and renewable energy,” affirmed the joint statement. “The Presidents expressed their intention to expand the dialogue on issues such as off-shore hydrocarbon production, the development of hydrogen and nuclear energy.”
The UK government’s Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) is seeking feedback from the nuclear industry and other stakeholders on its proposed timescale and structure for a High Temperature Gas Reactor (HTGR) demonstration programme. BEIS had announced in December that HTGRs would be the focus of the country’s Advanced Modular Reactor (AMR) programme. “The aim of the programme is to demonstrate that HTGRs can produce high temperature heat which could be used for low-carbon hydrogen production, process heat for industrial and domestic use and cost-competitive electricity generation, in time for any potential commercial AMRs to support Net Zero by 2050,” stated BEIS. (South Africa’s effectively abandoned Pebble Bed Modular Reactor was an HTGR.)
The City of Cape Town has defended its decision not to accept bids for wheeled electricity as part of its first independent power producer (IPP) procurement round but says future tenders will cater for wheeling. The city aims to enter into 20-year power purchase agreements (PPAs) with multiple tenderers but stipulates that every component power generation plant “must connect directly to the city’s network and no wheeled energy from generators connected to grids other than the city’s grid will be purchased”.
Sustainable offshore energy production could help deliver cost-competitive green hydrogen, which the World Platinum Investment Council (WPIC) says could play a significant role in the transition away from fossil fuels. Green hydrogen is produced by the electrolysis of water, which is, in turn, powered by renewable energy such as wind or solar. The wind provides infinite, free energy that generates the electricity needed by the electrolyser to produce green hydrogen at source.
One of the biggest announcements from last year’s COP26 climate talks was a pledge by some rich countries to provide $8.5-billion to help South Africa transition away from coal. Now different interests within the country are tussling over how that money should be distributed. Eskom Holdings, the embattled state-owned utility, is proposing that a substantial portion be used to expand the grid in order to encourage more investment in renewable electricity, according to people familiar with the situation.
Lighting manufacturer BEKA Schréder carries out a full evaluation of a site, including lighting audits and design, to ensure that the lighting effectively performs according to the necessary standards of the application. The visual tasks in various manufacturing and processing industries are very important, therefore, the lighting has to comply to the correct standard to ensure not only the safety of employees, but also the environment. “For all indoor and outdoor applications, the South African Bureau of Standards (SABS) has put South African National Standards (SANS) documents in place to ensure that all required lighting levels are adhered to in warehousing applications,” says BEKA Schréder marketing and segment development manager Grant Combrink.
Higher Education, Science and Innovation Minister Dr Blade Nzimande made a direct link between the country’s plans to produce green hydrogen for export and domestic markets and the Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan (ERRP) when officially unveiling the Hydrogen Society Road Map (HSRM) on Thursday. Nzimande said that he viewed the HSRM as one of the “leading instruments” for the economic recovery being pursued by government under the ERRP.
The shift from coal-fired to clean energy in South Africa could deliver an additional 250 000 jobs and more than $10-billion, or R150-billion, in gross value-add to the economy over 25 years, if an ambitious green recovery is pursued, the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) states in its ‘Capturing Green Recovery Opportunities from Wind Power in Developing Economies’ report. The energy transition, kickstarted with the commitment of $8.5-billion in financing agreed at COP26, would also deliver enormous decreases in carbon emissions equivalent, as well as save more than 50 Mℓ/y of water from 2026, the global body says.
Diversified miner South32 has made a final investment decision on the roll out of the AP3XLE energy efficiency project at its Hillside aluminium smelter, in Kwazulu-Natal. The technology has already been deployed at the company’s Mozal aluminium smelter in Mozambique.
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