There is considerable opportunity and potential to be unlocked in energy efficiency projects in South Africa, but more needs to be done with regard to financial solutions to catalyse a take up of opportunities, speakers said during a webinar hosted by industry organisation the South African Energy Efficiency Confederation on May 20. Carbon Trust Southern Africa head Benjamin Curnier said the organisation was working with the South African National Energy Development Institute and the Department of Minerals Resources and Energy, along with the World Bank, to see what kind of financial interventions could be deployed in the market to drive energy efficiency.
Initial research conducted for the Deep Decarbonisation Pathways (DDP) project in collaboration with the National Business Initiative (NBI) indicates that there is an emerging opportunity for South Africa to produce so-called “green iron” for export to international steelmakers seeking to transition away from the use of carbon-intensive coking coal in the production of the basic material. The green-iron research forms part of a broader initiative, involving NBI, Business Unity South Africa and the Boston Consulting Group, to develop decarbonisation pathways for domestic industry that could also support the country’s proposed “just transition” to a more climate-resilient economy.
The Shoprite Group will, by the end of June, have added 39 solar-powered refrigerated rigid trucks to its existing solar-powered fleet of 749 trailers, says group sustainability manager Sanjeev Raghubir. “It’s the first time we are adding solar-power nitrogen refrigerated rigid trucks to our fleet. It is also a first for Africa.”
A judge is set to rule after the first ever case filed against the government over its alleged failure to crack down on air pollution emitted by power plants operated by Eskom Holdings and refineries owned by Sasol. The case was filed in the Pretoria High Court by groundWork, an environmental-rights organization, and the Vukani Environmental Justice Movement in Action in 2019 and was heard by Judge Colleen Collis this week. The respondents in the case include President Cyril Ramaphosa, Environment Minister Barbara Creecy and provincial officials.
Johannesburg, Africa’s dominant financial center, wants to meet 35% of its energy needs from renewable sources by 2030 and will seek proposals for privately supplied power by August. South Africa’s biggest city, with a population of over 5 million people, is looking for its own power suppliers after the government last year said municipalities could buy electricity from companies other than state power utility Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd.
Kenya Electricity Generating Co, Africa’s geothermal pioneer, plans to raise $1.95-billion to build new, and upgrade existing plants in a bid to almost double its power output from the renewable fuel. KenGen, as the Kenyan State-owned company is known, plans to add 651 MW from underground steam in the next five years, said Cyrus Karingithi, an assistant manager for resource development and infrastructure. Most of the funds will be sought from development financiers, Karingithi said in an interview on Tuesday at a geothermal field located about 120 km northwest of the capital Nairobi.
Renewable energy company Enel Green Power South Africa country manager William Price comments that, despite the delays experienced with the procurement of capacity under the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP), he is not surprised by the country’s continuous project development in the renewable energy space. He notes that this is driven by high utility price increases, the continuation of load-shedding and the ever-increasing demand for energy.
Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe has again swatted aside calls for a 50 MW licence-exemption threshold for distributed-generation plants, describing such calls, which have been made by organised business and even endorsed by Eskom, as “academic” in light of a departmental survey showing that mines, factories and farms were satisfied with an increase in the cap to only 10 MW. Delivering his Budget Vote amid a return to load-shedding, Mantashe said some 10 000 respondents had been surveyed and had indicated that they would not be ready to pursue projects larger than 10 MW in size.
Eskom has suspended load-shedding for Tuesday morning and afternoon, and is expected to implement it again at 17:00. The power utility said the round of stage 2 cuts will then run until 22:00 on Tuesday night, the original ending time for the round of load-shedding announced on Sunday. “Over the past 24 hours Eskom teams have returned seven generation units to service. This has helped ease the supply constraints, and enabled Eskom to suspend load-shedding at this point. However, this is currently insufficient to fully supply the evening peak,” the utility said.
UK-based global industrial technology group Rolls-Royce has announced that the small modular nuclear reactor (SMR) consortium that it leads has upgraded the SMR’s design and increased its power output. This announcement, on Monday, marked the completion of the first phase of the project, which was achieved on time and under budget. Further, the consortium (UK SMR) aims not only to be assessed by UK regulators during the second half of this year, but also to be the first reactor design to be assessed by them during this, just opened, assessment ‘window’. This would keep the programme on course to construct its first SMR early next decade and have built as many as ten by 2035.
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