Modern civilisation was built on fossil fuels, with the invention and commercialisation of the internal combustion engine during the 1800s setting the stage for petroleum-based vehicles to be dominant worldwide for the next 150 years. Various oil majors continue to produce huge volumes of oil and natural gas, owing to fossil fuels still being used to meet the majority of the world’s energy requirements.
State-owned power utility Eskom is progressing with plans to repower and repurpose some of its coal power stations, build greenfield power plants with cleaner technologies and invest in necessary grid infrastructure to support these plans. Repowering and repurposing the Komati power station, in Mpumalanga, is being prioritised by Eskom this year.
National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) is appealing a High Court application that State-owned power utility Eskom brought against Nersa last year, which states that Nersa exceeded its boundaries regarding the determination on tariff adjustments requested by Eskom. Energy sector law firm LNP Attorneys CEO Nikita Lalla explains that Eskom’s argument – that Nersa had “gone beyond its statutory or regulatory regime in regard to determining tariff increases and the information the regulator was allowed to take into consideration in that endeavour” – was upheld by the courts.
Stellenbosch University (SU), in the Western Cape, is conducting a study to examine grid capacity and determine ideal locations for renewable-energy projects that will support the grid. The study is funded by global organisation the European Climate Foundation (ECF); SU reports on the results of the study to the ECF and State-owned power utility Eskom.
The use of renewable energy, such as solar photovoltaic, and exploring energy storage technologies, are integral to balancing the local energy mix in South Africa, including in the domestic and commercial sectors of the country. However, government needs to provide more guidance in terms of legislation in order to better implement these energy storage solutions correctly to the benefit of all relevant stakeholders, including State-owned power utility Eskom and end-users, states solar energy equipment supplier Valsa Trading MD Svilen Voychev.
Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe’s announcement of the opening of Bid Window 5 of the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP) in March this year will result in significant opportunities to use more energy storage technologies locally, says battery equipment supplier REVOV MD Lance Dickerson. The REIPPPP will procure 2 600 MW of renewable energy from independent power producers and REVOV is “uniquely positioned” to provide affordable energy storage solutions, owing to the growing availability of second-hand lithium-iron phosphate batteries.
A leading South African climate scientist believes a ‘Gauteng day-zero drought’ represents the biggest near-term climate change risk faced by the country, which is poised to become hotter and drier as average global temperatures rise. Francois Engelbrecht, who is a distinguished professor of Climatology at the University of the Witwatersrand’s Global Change Institute and a lead author of chapter four of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC’s) recently released Working Group One Sixth Assessment Report, says the Southern African region has been identified as a climate-change hot spot, owing to a projected rate of temperature change that will be twice the global average.
Diversified miner South32 has posted a 21% year-on-year increase in manganese output from its South African mines to 2.26-million tonnes for the year ended June 30.
The JSE-, ASX- and LSE-listed miner has a 44% interest in two manganese mines – Mamatwan and Wessels – in South Africa, based in the Kalahari Basin of the Northern Cape province, coupled with a 60% interest in an alloy smelter near Meyerton, in Gauteng.
Dr Ranajit Sahu, an engineer with more than three decades of experience in power plant design, has found that large quantities of greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions are “unavoidable”, even if the cleanest available technology is used for new coal-fired power generation. South Africa’s Integrated Resource Plan for Electricity (IRP) 2019 claims that new coal generation capacity will be cleaner because high-efficiency, low-emission (HELE) generation technology will be used, although it does not state which kind.
Pilot investment programme UK Climate Investments on August 18 fulfilled its cornerstone commitment of R500-million to help establish Africa’s first dedicated renewable energy yieldco, which is managed by majority black-owned fund manager Revego Fund Managers. Revego aims to tackle the challenge of a lack of access to electricity in sub-Saharan Africa, and accelerate the deployment of new clean electricity generation capacity by acquiring equity in operational renewable energy projects across the region, helping developers unlock and recycle capital.
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