Macquarie-managed UK Climate Investments (UKCI) and Norfund are financing a joint venture (JV) between H1 Holdings and Pele Green Energy to fund a 40% equity participation in a 700 MW portfolio of onshore wind farms. Both partners will invest alongside Enel Green Power in one of South Africa’s largest renewable energy equity deals valued at about $100-million.
Eskom has confirmed that Stage 2 load-shedding will be implemented from 14:00 on Wednesday November 17, until 5:00 on Saturday November 20. CEO Andre de Ruyter announced the latest round of load-shedding at the tail-end of a briefing initially called to warn of possible rotational power cuts, owing to the a surge in unplanned outages to 14 444 MW, while planned maintenance was being performed on units with a combined capacity of 4 100 MW.
Green hydrogen, a clean energy source made from water and renewable power, could become competitive in a decade, according to French utility Engie. That relies on Europe setting up the necessary regulatory framework to drive up demand and slash costs, Sebastien Arbola, the company’s head of thermal generation and energy supply, said Tuesday in Paris. The “tipping point” for renewable hydrogen to compete with gray hydrogen — which is made from methane and emits carbon — could be in 2030-2035, he said.
Power utility Eskom is calling on the public to reduce electricity use, as the power system is “severely constrained”, with five generation units at various power stations having failed throughout Tuesday. It notes that no load-shedding is being implemented yet, but warns that if there is any further loss of generation capacity, load-shedding may have to be implemented at short notice.
Emerging South African energy group Earth & Wire, which aims to sell electricity directly to private customers, is positioning itself to build a 20 GW portfolio of grid-connected wind and solar projects by 2035 at an estimated cost of R500-billion. Business development head Thomas Garner, who is also chairperson of the South African Independent Power Producers Association, reports that the company has secured over 400 000 ha of signed agreements with landowners on properties with sufficient solar and wind resources to meet the company’s target of supplying 30% of South Africa’s new electricity capacity by 2035.
A binary, this-or-that debate on technology for a just energy transition is unhelpful and does not consider the unique circumstances for each country in the pursuit of carbonisation, the World Coal Association (WCA) argues. The association’s stance is that it will respect coal users and non-coal users alike, since energy affordability, reliability and development are the key considerations to ponder, and these will differ for each country in the world, WCA CEO Michelle Manook tells Mining Weekly.
The South African subsidiary of global energy company EDF Renewables has been awarded three wind energy projects in Bid Window (BW) 5 of the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme.
EDF Renewables South Africa has been awarded participation in nearly 800 MW of projects in South Africa this year.
Business Leadership South Africa (BLSA) says it disagrees with those calling for the resignation of Eskom CEO André de Ruyter and his leadership team following the most recent intense period of load-shedding. In a statement, BLSA noted that the State-owned utility had had ten CEOs in ten years, creating instability that “only served to make a bad situation worse”.
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.
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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