The Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa (Sefa), managed by development finance institution the African Development Bank (AfDB), has approved a $1-million grant to facilitate Botswana’s transition to clean energy. The technical assistance project supports the government of Botswana in closing critical gaps in policy, regulatory and legal frameworks, which were identified at the Africa Energy Market Place and which include the introduction of least-cost planning, reduction of adverse environmental impacts and support for increased private sector participation in renewable energy generation investments.
Mining Weekly Editor Martin Creamer discusses decarbonisation as an opportunity to create quality employment; South Africa’s need to transition to clean energy without creating job losses and ghost towns in areas where fossil fuels provide the overwhelming economic support; and South Africa’s appreciation of platinum fuel cells being recognised increasingly as the world’s only zero-emission answer to climate change.
The government of Ukraine has approved a plan to expand the country’s uranium production. “The main purpose of this concept is to create conditions for increasing uranium production to fully meet the needs of domestic nuclear energy, as well as increase Ukraine’s energy independence,” explained Ukrainian Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko. Currently, nuclear energy provides Ukraine with 54% of its electricity. The country has 15 operational large reactors, all of Russian design. In the past few months, the Ukrainian government has announced a nuclear new build programme, which will be developed in cooperation with the US. This programme will make use of the AP1000 reactor developed by US company Westinghouse, of which at least five are to be built. All will be located at existing nuclear power plant sites, with the first to be constructed at Khmelnitsky.
Russian State-owned nuclear group Rosatom has selected South Korean group Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power (KHNP) to be the sole bidder for several major contracts for the El Dabaa nuclear power plant (NPP) in Egypt, World Nuclear News (WNN) reported on Tuesday. KHNP is a subsidiary of Korea Electric Power Corporation (better known as Kepco). El Dabaa will be Egypt’s first NPP, and is planned to be composed of four reactors and will be built by Rosatom. These reactors will all be VVER-1200 units (VVER being the Russian equivalent to the Western pressurised water reactor.)
South African Breweries (SAB) has committed to brewing with renewable electricity by 2025 as part of its efforts to take pressure off the national electricity grid and to meet its sustainability goals. The move is in line with holding company Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev) globally committing to the 2025 Sustainability Goals in climate action by adding renewable electricity capacity to regional grids and to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions globally.
Last month, a Pebble-Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR) nuclear power plant (NPP) was connected to an electricity grid and began to supply power to its region. This took place on December 20, at the Shidaowan NPP in China’s Shandong province. “From this moment on, the electricity generated from the Shidaowan nuclear power plant will be dispatched by the state to deliver daily electricity to thousands of households,” highlighted Tsinghua University. The PBMR NPP is composed of two reactors, which drive a single 210 MWe turbine. The first of the PBMRs achieved criticality in September and the second followed suit in November. It was the steam produced by the first reactor that was used to test the turbine. The official designation of the Chinese version of the PBMR concept is High Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactor – Pebble-bed Module (HTR-PM).
Power utility Eskom Holdings expects clarity early this year around the start of its independent transmission unit, which still awaits licence approvals and the sign-off of creditors. Separating the business, with generation and distribution arms to follow, is part of the company’s strategy to return to profitability. Eskom signed a legally binding agreement with the new subsidiary, though a number of steps remain before the process is complete.
South African power utility Eskom said on Monday it had executed the separation of its transmission division, subject to certain conditions, in line with an end-December deadline set in a restructuring plan. President Cyril Ramaphosa said in 2019 that the debt-laden utility would be split into three divisions – generation, transmission and distribution – to improve management of a company that has relied heavily on government bail outs and frequently implements nationwide power cuts.
Global coal-fired electricity generation is powering towards an all-time high, as the rapid economic recovery of 2021 has pushed up demand faster than low-carbon supplies can keep up, while steeply rising natural gas prices have made coal more competitive, says the International Energy Association (IEA).
In its ‘Coal 2021’ report, published on December 17, the IEA states that electricity generation from coal is forecast to jump by 9% in 2021, to a record 10 350 TWh.
State-owned electricity utility Eskom expects to cut its full-year loss to R9.1-billion in 2021/22, from R18.9-billion in 2020/21, but warns that its debt position remains unsustainable despite some positive financial momentum during the six months to September 30, including a reduction in its overall debt to R392-billion. CEO André de Ruyter reported on Thursday that Eskom made a R9.2-billion profit during the first half of its financial year, on the back of higher tariffs (15.06%) and sales volumes (8%) and reduced costs (R20-billion in savings targeted).
INDUSTRY NEWS
WHERE TO FIND US
Address
9 Yellow Street
Botshabelo Industrial Area
Botshabelo, Free State
Call / Email Us
Tel: +27 (0) 51 534 1651
Email: info@transfix.co.za
