Local world-record rower joins Solar Capital as South Africa country manager

Renewable energy company Solar Capital has appointed the Row2Rio ocean rower Zirk Botha country manager of its South African operations.

Solar Capital is a subsidiary of the Phelan Energy Group.

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ACWA says investor pitch well received as it gears up for IPO

ACWA Power, one of Saudi Arabia’s main vehicles for building renewable energy projects, said meetings with potential investors ahead of an initial public offering have gone “very well.” The company, half-owned by the kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund, is pushing ahead with an IPO it’s been discussing for years, CEO Paddy Padmanathan said in an interview with Bloomberg TV. Over the next five years, the company will double the amount of power it generates, mostly from renewable sources amid a global shift away from burning fossil fuels, he said.
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Eskom CEO says carbon capture being considered in South Africa

Eskom Holdings, South Africa’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, is evaluating the use of carbon capture at power plants as part of decarbonisation plans to transform the coal-burning utility. The process that captures carbon-dioxide emissions would need to be financially viable, CEO Andre de Ruyter said in an interview on radio station 702 on Friday.
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Ramaphosa hints at yet more reforms as he predicts ‘massive investment’ in wake of …

President Cyril Ramaphosa has described a recently gazetted amendment to Schedule 2 of the Electricity Regulation Act, opening the way for sub-100 MW grid-tied embedded generators to supply one or more customers without a licence, as a “defining moment in energy generation in our country”. Responding to a Parliamentary question on the progress being made on government’s Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan (ERRP), the President said that the reform, which was implemented in August, had been “widely welcomed, not only in our country, but also globally”.
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Mediclinic Southern Africa enters R2bn renewables procurement deal

Diversified international private healthcare services group Mediclinic’s Southern Africa division has entered into an agreement, valued at up to £110-million, or about R2-billion, with Energy Exchange of Southern Africa to procure renewable electricity. As part of the group’s broad environmental, social and governance (ESG) strategy, Mediclinic has set an ambitious target to become carbon neutral by 2030.
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Researchers using Joburg as live lightning research laboratory

The University of the Witwatersrand’ (Wits’) Johannesburg Lightning Research Laboratory (JLRL) is turning Johannesburg into a laboratory where live lightning events are measured and characterised through the use of high-speed cameras, direct current measurements, fast electric field measurements, field measurements and comparison with lightning location systems. To build on Wits’ pioneering research into lightning, and as part of the Wits Centenary programme that seeks to advance society for good, the JLRL has partnered with lightning protection company Dehn Africa and State-owned telecommunications company Sentech to support research into the protection of renewable energy systems from lightning.
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Eskom debt remains a challenge as utility posts nearly R19bn loss

Creamer Media’s Chanel de Bruyn speaks to Engineering News Editor Terence Creamer about the nearly R19-billion loss posted by power utility Eskom for the 2021 financial year, as well as about Eskom’s still-high debt levels and what impact this could have on the utility’s just energy transition transaction.  
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Eskom ponders options for debt recovery from Emfuleni municipality

Power utility Eskom has won a summary judgment against the Emfuleni local municipality for R1.3-billion, which the municipality owes the State-owned entity for unpaid bulk electricity services in 2019.

The R1.3-billion was part of a total debt of R1.9-billion, which the local government had accumulated in 2019.

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Western Cape launches renewable energy planning fund

The Western Cape provincial government has launched its Municipal Energy Resilience Fund (MERF), which will make nearly R13-million available to qualifying municipalities for research and planning for renewable energy projects.

This should help mitigate load-shedding in the province, the provincial government states.

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Organisations raise concern over lack of public participation in nuclear energy talks

Societal wellbeing organisations the Southern African Faith Communities’ Environment Institute (Safcei) and Earthlife Africa Johannesburg have expressed their concern about the South African government pushing for more nuclear energy, while renewables wait in the wings.

The two organisations took the government to court in 2017 over what it deemed an unconstitutional R1-trillion nuclear deal with Russia.

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