South Africa must pursue interventions to mitigate energy crisis, BLSA says

While South Africa is on the road to long-term energy stability as business and independent power producers (IPPs) begin construction on various embedded generation projects, the country is probably two years away from a major change in the electricity supply scenario, Business Leadership South Africa (BLSA) CEO Busi Mavuso writes in her weekly newsletter. “Despite progress in opening the way for private companies to more easily build plants up to 100 MW and [a resumption in the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP)], we are facing unprecedented levels of load-shedding, severely disrupting business and our daily lives,” she says.
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UK’s Johnson calls COP26 climate agreement ‘game changing’

The agreement reached Saturday at global climate talks in Glasgow will be pivotal in the fight to stop global warming, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said.

The conference hosted by the UK produced a “game-changing agreement that the world needed to see,” Johnson said at a press conference in London on Sunday.

Negotiators from almost 200 countries clinched a deal that broke new ground in the fight against climate change, but punted the hardest decisions into the future.​​

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CSIR says fall in renewables tariffs points to need for higher deployments

The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) says the tariffs achieved during the fifth bid window of the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP) confirm its previous analysis showing that renewable energy is the lowest cost generation option available for South Africa. In late October, Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe announced the names of 25 preferred bidders to build 13 wind and 12 solar projects with a combined capacity of 2 583 MW.
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Western lithium-ion supply chain weakness to slow EV adoption – GlobalData

Data and analytics company GlobalData reports that a weakness of lithium-ion battery materials in Western countries is set to impede electric vehicle (EV) adoption and serve to demonstrate China’s dominance of the EV market.

China dominates the lithium-ion battery supply chain, specifically in terms of battery cells, cathode and anode production and chemical refining.

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De Ruyter sees transparency as key as Eskom walks load-shedding tightrope

As Eskom exited one of its most intensive periods of load-shedding on Friday November 12, CEO Andre de Ruyter promised greater transparency in future on both the state and performance of the power system given the likelihood that the risk of disruption will persist for the coming three to four years. The State-owned utility suspended its latest bout of load-shedding – initially implemented at Stage 2 on November 5, but then swiftly escalated to Stage 4 before being trimmed back to Stage 2 almost a week later – early on Friday morning.
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Minerals Council welcomes focus on structural reforms in MTBPS

The country requires a continued focus on stabilising the nation’s public finances and, most importantly, the critical need to implement more aggressive structural and institutional reforms that can drive up investment and inclusive growth in the economy, the Minerals Council South Africa says. It adds that, in its view, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana has delivered on these critical issues in his maiden Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS).
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AMEU responds to allegations that some municipalities ignored load-shedding instructions

In this editorial, the Association of Municipal Electricity Utilities (AMEU) responds to allegations by power utility Eskom that some municipalities had ignored instructions to implement load-shedding last weekend and that that had contributed to the utility having to implement Stage 4 load-shedding this week.
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No immediate Eskom debt solution, as Minister outlines ‘tough love’ stance on SOEs

Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana offered no new insight in his maiden address to lawmakers into how government intended approaching the issue of Eskom’s R400-billion debt burden, which has been labelled unsustainable by the utility, and also refrained from making any new provisions for distressed State-owned enterprises (SOEs). Instead, he said that he would be adopting a “tough love” stance towards SOEs, albeit with the caveat that government would most likely support those entities regarded as “strategic”, such as Eskom, Transnet and Denel.
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Eskom seeks urgent conversion of $8.5bn political declaration into commercial agreement

Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter reports that the State-owned utility has already taken some initial steps to ensure that the $8.5-billion political declaration signed at COP26 in early November is urgently converted into a practical commercial agreement to support its just transition programme. Addressing the second of what have become daily briefings on the state of the system, which has once again succumbed to an intensive period of load-shedding, De Ruyter reported that follow-up discussions had been held on Wednesday with one of the multilateral lenders involved in the declaration to assess whether the flow of funds could be accelerated.
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Coal company sees first equity for renewables shift in Botswana

Shumba Energy secured the first equity commitments to develop an $80 million solar project in Botswana as part of the coal company’s plan to shift to renewable energy. The company’s green energy unit, Shumba Renewables, received commitments of $950,000 from international investors, Shumba Energy’s MD Mashale Phumaphi said in an interview Tuesday, without disclosing the names. Full funding for the 100-megawatt solar project that will be the nation’s largest and situated in north-eastern Botswana is expected by the second quarter of next year, Phumaphi said.
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