South African Electricity and Energy Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa has affirmed that Africa did not face a choice between decarbonisation and industrialisation. On the contrary, it had to, and could do, both. He was delivering the keynote address at the Africa Energy Forum 2025, at the Cape Town International Convention Centre, on Tuesday evening. “We will not accept the false binary between decarbonisation and industrialisation,” he stated. Decarbonisation could not be used to block African aspirations. It had to support African aspirations.
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Eskom has confirmed that it has a 5 GW pipeline of so-called ‘repowering’ projects at various stages of development on the sites of six coal power stations, including Komati, which has already stopped operating and where 122 MW of solar PV and 150 MW of battery storage is under development. Addressing the most recent Presidential Climate Commission (PCC) meeting, CEO Dan Marokane said that solar PV, wind and battery storage, or BESS, project development work was also under way at Grootvlei, Arnot, Camden and Hendrina, while a gas-to-power project was being assessed at Kriel, alongside PV and BESS.
A World Bank-linked climate fund has backed South African plans to cut its reliance on coal, unlocking up to $2.6-billion in financing and giving the nation’s energy transition an unexpected boost. The approval of the updated plan by the Climate Investment Funds, which was stalled after South Africa last year asked to delay the closure of three coal-fired power plants to ease an energy crisis, will see the CIF disburse $500-million to the country.
The City of Johannesburg’s (CoJ’s) electricity utility City Power has called on all qualifying indigent households across Johannesburg to register for the free basic electricity (FBE) programme – an initiative that aims to provide eligible customers with free electricity units each month. The initiative forms part of City Power’s broader strategy to ensure inclusive access to electricity and improve customer compliance to address electricity theft and equipment damage caused by overloading of the network through illegal connections and tampering.
The National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) registered 160 new generation facilities, contributing 2 187 MW and representing an investment value of R41.94-billion, in the fourth quarter of the 2024/25 financial year. Six of these facilities are registered for commercial purposes, with a capacity of 957 MW and an investment value of R15.68-billion.
Northern Cape-based green hydrogen and ammonia project Prieska Power Reserve (PPR) has received formal approval of a funding grant from KfW Development Bank, in partnership with the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC). “We are making excellent progress across the project’s technical and financial workstreams. With KfW’s support and our ongoing partnership with the IDC, we are well positioned to reach financial close and move into project execution,” says PPR director Martin Walzer.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has again underlined the industrialisation potential of green hydrogen, and has stressed that South Africa will used its G20 Presidency as well as its participation in the upcoming G7 meeting in Canada to call for a prioritisation of just energy transitions as engines of economic growth and social development. In an address to the Africa Green Hydrogen Summit in Cape Town, Ramaphosa described green hydrogen is an anchor for industrial transformation and infrastructure investment, as well as a bridge to a new export industry for African countries.
The World Bank’s board has agreed to end a longstanding ban on funding nuclear energy projects in developing countries as part of a broader push to meet rising electricity needs, the bank’s president Ajay Banga said on Wednesday. Banga outlined the bank’s revised energy strategy in an email to staff after what he called a constructive discussion with the board on Tuesday. He said the board was not yet in agreement on whether the bank should engage in funding the production of natural gas, and if so, under what circumstances.
A $5.8-billion project on South Africa’s east coast seeks to use the country’s infrastructure and cheap renewable power to make some of the world’s cheapest green ammonia for clients in Europe and Asia, an executive said. South Africa is vying with other African nations, including Egypt, Morocco and Namibia, to meet rising demand in the EU and Asia for hydrogen and ammonia described as green because they are produced from renewable energy.
The National Transmission Company South Africa (NTCSA) has indicated that it is aiming to have the initial phase of the South African Wholesale Electricity Market, also referred to as the SAWEM, operating by April 1 next year, should it have received regulatory approval to do so. In a presentation to the Portfolio Committee on Electricity and Energy, NTCSA’s Andrew Etzinger reported that it had applied to the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) for a Market Operator licence.
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