The Swedish Energy Agency, which falls under the Sweden’s Ministry of Infrastructure, has awarded funding of $10.6-million to support the construction of a demonstrator small modular nuclear reactor (SMR) in the country. The funding has been granted to Swedish Modular Reactors AB, which is a joint venture between local companies Uniper Sweden and LeadCold. LeadCold is a spin-off company from Sweden’s Royal Institute of Technology (abbreviated to KTH in Swedish), while Uniper Sweden is a subsidiary of the Germany-based international energy group Uniper. The two companies and KTH jointly announced in February last year that they would jointly explore the construction of a Swedish-designed demonstrator SMR.
The Gauteng Infrastructure Financing Agency (GIFA) has identified up to 11 sites in the West Rand area, which the Gauteng provincial government has earmarked for renewable energy plant development.
The sites, made available through partnerships with local mining companies, have been confirmed, through feasibility studies, to have the appropriate topography and solar radiance levels that make them “highly suitable” for solar farm clusters, says GIFA project manager Noxolo Mtembu.
Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe says South Africa has natural renewable-energy resources to “generate the much-needed energy to kickstart our economy and put South Africa on a just energy transition trajectory”. In an address to the Solar Power Africa conference on Wednesday, the Minister departed from his characteristic defence of fossil fuels and nuclear to highlight the potency of South Africa’s solar resources.
The City of Cape Town has launched new tenders to procure as much as 300 MW of renewable energy, mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis said on Wednesday The mayor was speaking at the Solar Power Africa conference hosted at the Cape Town International Convention Centre.
The National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) has initiated public consultations on Eskom’s latest regulatory clearing account (RCA) application, through which the utility is seeking to recover an additional R10.7-billion for the 2020/21 financial year – a period which coincided with South Africa’s most intensive Covid lockdowns. Nersa has published a consultation paper and has requested stakeholders to submit written comments by March 7, after which it will host three days of virtual public hearings from March 8 to 10.
Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe confirmed on Tuesday that not all of the 11 Risk Mitigation Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (RMIPPPP) preferred bidders would be in a position to conclude power purchase agreements at the end of March, the deadline for the projects to reach financial close. During a Parliamentary debate on President Cyril Ramaphosa’s recent State of the Nation Address (SoNA), Mantashe said steps were being taken to address a current supply shortfall that the President estimated to be 4 000 MW, but which several commentators believe to be closer to 6 000 MW.
The City of Tshwane on Tuesday cut the power supply to the South African Revenue Service (SARS), the SA Police Service (SAPS) headquarters, and the Gautrain station in Hatfield. The City said Gautrain owed R10-million and had last paid its account in 2020.
The Coega Development Corporation (CDC) reports that it is encouraged by policy interventions announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa in his State of the Nation Address on February 10 as these could help to extend developments at the Coega Special Economic Zone (SEZ).
These interventions will unlock economic development for inclusive growth and sustainability, forming part of the Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan as a common programme to rebuild the economy.
A new report on ‘The role of gas in South Africa’s path to net-zero’ argues in favour of a pathway based on the importation of liquefied natural gas (LNG), which it describes as “optimal” because it minimises the risk of stranded assets and gas infrastructure lock-in post-2040. In addition, such a pathway is less complex and capital intensive than ones based on the possible exploration and development of domestic gas fields and/or the building of a pipeline to import gas from northern Mozambique.
The dirtiest fossil fuel is still raising-trillions of dollars of funding, despite finance industry pledges to back net zero carbon targets by the middle of the century. Commercial banks have channeled more than $1.5-trillion across the coal supply chain since the start of 2019, according to a report from German researcher Urgewald and its partners. The findings come just over three months after dozens of banks joined Mark Carney’s global alliance to achieve net-zero emissions from finance.
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