Mining sector looking toward hydrogen, battery storage to decarbonise

The global energy landscape is changing amid a rush to net-zero emissions by 2050, and renewable energy is going from strength to strength, with these projects having captured nearly 50% of all new generation build capital in 2020.

Energy services company Wärtsilä Canada business development manager Mark Kennedy said during an Energy and Mines World Congress 2021 session on November 9 that, by 2030, this would likely increase to 67%.

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‘We’ll breathe clean air, but in darkness’ – Mantashe’s DDG slams ‘financial bullying’ in …

Deputy Director General of the Department of Mineral Resources Ntokozo Ngcwabe has slammed what she called “financial bullying” by funders who refuse to finance coal projects, saying that South Africa needs to pace itself in its move away from the polluting resource. “We need to pace ourselves [in scaling down coal use]  … and not be pressured to meet certain deadlines by a certain time if we are not at the same level of development [as richer countries],” Ngcwabe said in a media interview on Wednesday.
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Opinion: Embracing green energy industrialisation to tackle climate change and drive inclusive …

In this opinion article, Boston Consulting Group MD and partner Lucas Chaumontet writes about the need for South Africa to coordinate its climate change adaptation and mitigation plans with its broader national reindustrialisation plans.
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Procurement rules and liquidity constraints hold back Eskom’s maintenance roll-out

Liquidity constraints and procurement problems continue to impede Eskom’s reliability maintenance recovery (RMR) programme, with CEO Andre de Ruyter reporting that South Africa’s public procurement rules have undercut the utility’s efforts to swiftly appoint the competent contractors needed to undertake the programme. In a briefing hosted during another bout of Stage 4 load-shedding – which is expected to be de-escalated to Stage 3 on Wednesday and then Stage 2 on Friday, before being cancelled entirely over the weekend – De Ruyter said the procurement system “really does not lend itself to this type of maintenance programme”.
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Rolls-Royce and partners launch specialist small modular nuclear reactor company

UK-based global industrial technology group Rolls-Royce announced late on Monday the creation of a new subsidiary company, Rolls-Royce SMR Limited. This is a special purpose vehicle (SPV) which is focused on the development of Rolls-Royce’s small modular nuclear reactor (SMR) project and the creation of the new entity follows a successful ‘equity raise’ to fund the further development of the project. “[Monday’s] announcement is fantastic news,” enthused Rolls-Royce SMR CEO Tom Samson. “Rolls-Royce SMR has been established to deliver a low cost, deployable, scalable and investable programme of new nuclear power plants. Our transformative approach to delivering nuclear power, based on predictable factory-built components, is unique and the nuclear technology is proven.”
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R130bn climate deal can be leveraged for R500bn clean energy shift, says RMB

The R130-billion concessional climate finance green deal South Africa signed at COP26 could translate into a R500-billion boost to help South Africa’s just energy transition to decarbonise its sources of energy, says financial services firm RMB CEO James Formby. “We are yet to see the details behind these financial commitments such as the timing and conditions, but overall we are optimistic about the potential substantial decarbonisation benefits for South Africa that will move us closer to globally accepted emission targets.”
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Fieldstone appoints renewable energy stalwart Breytenbach as senior expert

Energy and infrastructure focused investment bank Fieldstone has appointed Karèn Breytenbach as senior expert in energy and public-private partnership (PPP) systems.

She has been involved in energy and private investment in public projects over the past quarter century and is renowned for her “ground-breaking” work in South Africa, and even beyond its borders, states Fieldstone in a statement.

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South Africa targets ‘highly concessional’ terms as it moves to negotiate $8.5bn climate deal

If South Africa is unable to secure highly concessional terms from the international partners that have offered $8.5-billion to support the country’s energy transition and to provide social protection for workers and communities associated with the coal value chain, it will not pursue the transaction, an official in The Presidency said on Tuesday. Speaking at an event hosted on the side-lines of COP26, Rudi Dicks, who is programme management officer in the private office of the President, emphasised that no agreement had yet been concluded and that South Africa could still “walk away if we feel that the conditions are too onerous”.
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South Africa must find alternative livelihoods in shift away from coal – Mantashe

South Africa’s shift away from fossil fuels must generate alternative economic activities in order to avoid coal mining areas such as Mpumalanga becoming “ghost towns”, Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe said on Tuesday. “If we say we must stop fossil fuels, we must find alternative livelihoods,” Mantashe said on the sidelines of the African Energy Week conference in Cape Town.
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Parsons highlights risk of load-shedding to South Africa’s economic recovery

North West University Business School economist Professor Raymond Parsons has urged that the extent to which the current Eskom load-shedding “now poses an increasing to risk to South Africa’s economic recovery should not be underestimated”. In addition, the current bout of rolling blackouts across the country is also impacting on its growth prospects and job creation.
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