Bearings manufacturer and distributor SKF held a virtual webinar last month to discuss the company’s three-pronged strategy shift to better meet client requirements. “The strategy has encouraged every part of the company to rethink the way it works, especially SKF’s core research and development (R&D) functions,” said SKF chief technology officer and innovation and business development president Dr Victoria van Camp during the webinar.
State-owned electricity utility Eskom argued on Thursday that it required additional revenue of R23-billion for the upcoming financial year to remain a going concern and told the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) that further tariff increases, beyond the 5.22% already approved for next year, were required to enable it to migrate to financial sustainability. Nersa is currently hosting public hearings as part of its deliberations on how to implement a regulatory clearing account (RCA) balance that had already been approved, as well as how it should respond to supplementary applications by Eskom arising from two recent adverse court rulings.
Wind power will continue to show record growth over the next five years, despite the impacts of the Covid-19 crisis, and will “make a crucial contribution to economic recovery”, says the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC).
Industry organisation the South African Photovoltaic Industry Association (SAPVIA) has launched a new platform, the PV Professionals (PVP) platform, in a move it hopes will improve the representation of professionals in the solar PV industry, as well as unify its players. The organisation describes the platform as a pioneer in the South African solar industry and one that will develop the capacity and professionalism of South African PV professionals.
Germany is looking at using ammonia and methanol as ways to deliver hydrogen as a clean-burning fuel for industry, part of its effort to make Europe’s biggest economy climate-neutral by 2050. The government is financing a feasibility study to evaluate ways of transporting hydrogen and is focusing on the two chemicals as a possible solution, according to Stefan Kaufmann, a member of Germany’s parliament who is responsible for coordinating the use of green hydrogen in Germany.
French Foreign Trade and Economic Attractiveness Minister Franck Riester, who is leading a business delegation to South Africa this week, reports that French firms will follow-up their R20-billion in investment commitments made to South Africa in 2019 with new promises worth a further R14-billion. French companies made pledges worth a combined R20-billion during the second yearly South Africa Investment Conference, which took place in Sandton, Gauteng, in November last year.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has highlighted the importance of project preparation to unlocking the mostly private finance that will be needed to realise government’s goal of investing R1-trillion in infrastructure over the coming four years and turning South Africa into a “building site”. Speaking at an Infrastructure South Africa (ISA) roundtable in Gauteng on Tuesday, Ramaphosa said that private sector funding and high-impact capital funding would be secured only if a credible pipeline of “bankable” projects was developed.
Saudi Arabian power generation company Acwa Power’s Bokpoort concentrated solar power (CSP) plant, in the Northern Cape, has become the first renewable facility on the continent to complete a full week of continuous around-the-clock operation. The operation set the new African continent benchmark by achieving 13 days, or 312 hours, of continuous operations on October 23, which is almost double the previous record it had set in March 2016.
State-owned power utility Eskom has introduced its project for the construction of the 282 km of 400 kV transmission line, with associated feeder and transformer bays, which will be construction between the Gromis substation, in the Northern Cape, and the Juno substation, in the Western Cape. The utility met with various districts and local municipalities from the two provinces on October 29.
Energy and chemicals group Sasol reports that it has secured more than 100 000 carbon credits in a transaction concluded under the South African Carbon Offset Administration System (COAS), set up to facilitate the listing, transfer and retirement of such credits to offset carbon tax liabilities. In a statement the JSE-listed company said the transaction had been concluded with Bethlehem Hydro, a South African independent power producer (IPP), and that it was among the first concluded under COAS, which was launched earlier this year.
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