About 700 houses in Diepkloof Zone 3, Soweto, are in the dark after Eskom disconnected its power supply to the area. Eskom accused residents of illegally connecting electricity to their homes and disconnected them last week.
South African state power utility Eskom sees an opportunity to emerge from years of crisis by shifting from coal-fired power generation towards natural gas and renewables, its chief executive told Reuters. Eskom has implemented power cuts for more than a decade in Africa’s most industrialised nation that have held back economic growth and deterred investment. It has roughly R400-billion of debt that it services through regular government bailouts.
Stronger policies and raised climate goals leading into COP26 are driving renewables to new records, but faster deployment across all key sectors is needed to reach net zero, the International Energy Agency (IEA) says in a new report. It adds that the growth of the world’s capacity to generate electricity from solar panels, wind turbines and other renewable technologies is on course to accelerate over the coming years, with this year expected to set a fresh all-time record for new installations.
US automotive manufacturer Tesla’s South African partner, Rubicon Group brought the first Tesla Model X Performance Edition all-electric sports utility vehicle into the country to raise renewable energy’s profile in the country. Simone Liedtke, who saw a demonstration of the vehicle, tells us more.
Pan-African liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply network DNG Energy has received a shipment of LNG at its plant in Germiston, enabling the company to accelerate its pilot projects with its partners in the next few weeks.
DNG Energy’s pilot projects aim to test the feasibility of using LNG as an alternative to diesel, as a proof-of-concept for a cleaner and more affordable option for transport, industrial power generation and mining.
State-owned power utility Eskom on November 30 said an attempted cable theft incident has affected supply to the Bedfordview substation, which supplies the City of Ekurhuleni’s (CoE’s) Bedfordview customers. Given the extent of the damage, it may take four to five days to restore supply.
Development finance institution the International Finance Corporation (IFC) is providing $900 000 in funding for project development costs for an independent power producer (IPP) project in Kolwezi, in the south-eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The project entails a 100 MW solar photovoltaic (PV) installation, with the power to be sold to the national utility and support mining operations and economic activity in the region.
JSE-listed building materials group PPC has outlined a new decarbonisation strategy that includes firm targets for implementation by 2025 and 2030 and also outlines a long-term aspirational goal of transitioning its operations to net-zero carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 2050. The strategy is contained in the group’s inaugural Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) report and the targets have been set using the 2020 financial year as the base.
Wind and solar power multinational Mainstream Renewable Power raised €90-million in additional funding to accelerate new market entries and the build-out of gigawatt-scale wind and solar assets across Latin America, Africa and the Asia Pacific region, the company said on November 29. The funding round will help accelerate the company’s growth, extend its footprint and support its ambitions of building a global renewable energy major.
South Africa will soon agree on a comprehensive, unified approach to turning around Eskom Holdings, which is saddled with R402-billion in debt, according to the minister who oversees the state power utility. Eskom, which depends on coal for the bulk of its electricity generation, has subjected the country to intermittent rolling blackouts for more than a decade and accounts for about 40% of its climate-warming greenhouse gas emissions. Wide-ranging and at times conflicting suggestions for fixing the company have been flighted by the National Treasury, the energy department and the utility itself.
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