The coal-to-renewables initiative of Seriti Green, the 91% black-owned and black-controlled Seriti Coal associate, came in for special praise at the interesting fireside chat between outgoing Eskom CEO André de Ruyter and outgoing Minerals Council South Africa CEO Roger Baxter on the second day of the Investing in African Mining Indaba. Seriti Green is building a 900 MW wind farm in South Africa’s electricity heartland of Mpumalanga, much of which will be used by the coal mines of the Seriti group as part of a decarbonisation initiative.
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From sunshine to rare minerals to a youthful population, Africa has the raw ingredients to make the green transition. Now it needs the finance. Take power. Exceptionally strong sun and vast swathes of desert mean Africa is the region with the highest solar generation potential over the long term, according to calculations by the World Bank. It’s now cheaper to build and operate new large-scale wind and solar farms in many parts of the world than to keep running coal or gas-fired power plants. With more than half of people in Sub-Saharan Africa living without electricity, expanding solar should be a no-brainer.
The global transition to low- and zero-carbon energy sources was a once-in-a-generation opportunity for Africa, just as the original Industrial Revolution had been for the West, highlighted Bushveld Minerals CEO Fortune Mojepalo at the Invest in African Mining Indaba 2023 conference in Cape Town. He was participating in a panel discussion. It had been estimated, he said, that it would be necessary to develop 400 new mines, worldwide, to supply the metals that would be needed for the energy transition and the production of electric vehicles. The metals required included cobalt, lithium, and the platinum group metals. Africa led the world rankings in six or seven of the metals essential for the energy transition.
ReNew Energy Global and Engineers India are among India companies advancing energy projects in Africa and the Middle East amid rising demand in those regions. State-run energy consultant Engineers India expects to finalise a nearly $25-million order for a chemicals and fertiliser plant in Nigeria, and is actively reviewing opportunities in oil refining projects across Africa, chairperson Vartika Shukla told Bloomberg Television in an interview in Bengaluru.
Eskom needs debt relief in combination with tariff increases to survive, said CEO Andre de Ruyter, who has led the utility for three years as South Africa’s power outages have intensified. The continent’s most-industrialised nation has had 100 straight days of electricity cuts because of supply shortages largely caused by unreliable coal-fired power plants. Fixing the energy crisis that’s crimping the economy has become a central focus for President Cyril Ramaphosa’s government.
South Africa’s electricity crisis is costing the economy as much as R899 million a day, according to central bank estimates. Rolling blackouts of about 6 to 12 hours a day, or so-called Stage 3 and Stage 6 outages, detract between R204-million and R899 million from the economy daily, the South African Reserve Bank said in an emailed response to questions on Monday. Power cuts, known locally as load shedding, are needed to protect the grid from collapse when state-owned company Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd.’s aging and poorly maintained and mostly coal-fed plants can’t meet demand.
An increased use of the diesel-fuelled open cycle gas turbines (OCGTs) represents South Africa’s only short-term defence against higher levels of economically damaging loadshedding, a new analysis of the country’s power crisis shows. However, the new Meridian Economics briefing note also outlines a strong case for incentivising rooftop solar to reduce the need for diesel, noting that distributed solar photovoltaic (PV) systems have the shortest deployment lead times and are “immune from any constraints posed by the transmission network”.
In sharing its stance on climate change at the Investing in African Mining Indaba, in Cape Town, the Minerals Council South Africa has acknowledged that the mining industry can, and should, play a role in adapting to and mitigating the consequences of climate change in South Africa. This includes efforts to support a Just Energy Transition in the country, while still promoting investment into clean coal technologies and alternative coal uses.
The call by the African National Congress for a State of Disaster to be declared over the energy crisis has come as a surprise to organised business, given that only a few months ago President Cyril Ramaphosa said this been considered but that legal advice was that it could not be implemented, business organisation Business Leadership South Africa (BLSA) CEO Busi Mavuso writes in her weekly newsletter. “A State of Disaster triggers emergency powers that can limit Constitutional rights. The relevant legislation provides reasons to declare a State of Disaster, particularly to assist and protect the public, provide relief, protect property and prevent and combat corruption. Under a State of Disaster, the executive can issue regulations that limit rights but only if, in doing so, they achieve the objectives of the state of disaster,” she outlines.
South Africa is nearing 100 consecutive days of rolling blackouts, the longest stretch yet, with more to come as its electricity crisis deepens. Eskom , the state-owned company that produces almost all the electricity in Africa’s most industrialised economy, has imposed blackouts daily since October 31, making Monday the 99th straight day of outages, according to Bloomberg calculations. Power rationing, known locally as loadshedding, is needed to protect the nation’s grid from collapse when Eskom’s aging and poorly maintained and mostly coal-fed plants can’t meet demand, which happened on 200 days over 2022.
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