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Solidarity starts legal action against Nersa to remove private generation bottlenecks

Trade union Solidarity has served legal papers on the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) to remove all bottlenecks standing in the way of private energy suppliers. Solidarity stresses that the future of energy in South Africa lies in less State and more private service delivery.
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An energy crisis is seeping into South Africa’s food supply

The most severe power cuts ever experienced in South Africa are threatening food and water supplies and disrupting the lives of millions of people, including chicken farmers. In the poultry industry, electricity outages have forced factories to pause round-the-clock operations for as long as half a day at a time. As a result, over ten-million birds designated for slaughter are still alive and consuming feed, creating a backlog that companies fear they won’t be able to fix.
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Transparency-boosting Battery Passport proof-of-concept launched at Davos

Multistakeholder organisation the Global Battery Alliance (GBA) launched a proof-of-concept for its Battery Passport at the World Economic Forum’s yearly meeting in Davos, Switzerland, on January 18.

With the aim of establishing a sustainable battery value chain by 2030, the GBA’s Battery Passport is proposed as a key to facilitating the rapid scaling of sustainable, circular and responsible battery value chains to meet the targets of the Paris Agreement through electrification of the transport and power sectors.

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Wind body wants independent assessment of grid constraints in Cape provinces after shovel-ready …

The South African Wind Energy Association (SAWEA) is hoping to convince Eskom to conduct an independent technoeconomic assessment of whether there is potential to extract more capacity from the constrained grid in the Cape provinces after none of the 23 wind projects that participated in the most recent public procurement round were appointed as a preferred bidder. In December, Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe announced the appointment of only six utility-scale solar photovoltaic (PV) projects, with a combined capacity of just 860 MW, as preferred bidders, following Bid Window Six (BW6) of the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP).
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Zambia signs $2bn solar power development pact with UAE

Zambia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) signed a $2-billion agreement to build solar plants in the Southern African country that will increase its generation base by more than half. The joint venture between Zambia’s state-owned power utility, Zesco, and a UAE government-owned renewable energy company, Masdar, targets the development of 2 000 MW of solar power projects, President Hakainde Hichilema said in a statement on his Facebook page.
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Kibo to produce synthetic oil in addition to syngas

Aim- and AltX-listed renewable-energy-focused development company Kibo Energy will potentially introduce an additional revenue stream to its 2.7 MW plastic-to-syngas power plant, which resides within its 65%-owned Sustineri Energy subsidiary. This potential new revenue stream involves the production of synthetic oil from non-recyclable plastic waste, in addition to the production of electricity from syngas, which promises significant added benefits to the project.
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Higher electricity prices will see M&E companies invest to survive, not grow

The Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of Southern Africa (Seifsa) says Eskom’s 18.65% tariff increase comes at a time when the cost of living is already exorbitantly high for many South African households and businesses and will see investment being redirected from growth initiatives to survival efforts.

While the federation acknowledges that the National Energy Regulator of South Africa, which granted Eskom the increase, has a difficult balancing act to manage, the increase has been granted when Eskom cannot provide sufficient electricity to its customers at the moment and into the foreseeable future.

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City Power to cut off defaulters in Alexandra in bid to recover R363m

City Power in Johannesburg will embark on a three-day revenue collection effort from Tuesday to recover R363-million. The electricity supplier plans to cut off defaulting business accounts in Region E, Alexandra.
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EIUG outlines supply- and demand-side options for easing loadshedding crisis

The Energy Intensive Users Group (EIUG) has confirmed that its large mining and industrial members have a 4 GW-plus pipeline of generation projects that can be connected to the grid over the next five years to help close the electricity supply gap. However, it argues that other supply- and demand-side interventions are urgently required to reduce the intensity of both loadshedding and load curtailment. “We are of the view that Eskom and government alone will not be able to resolve these issues soon and, hence, other options need to be explored considering that this is a crisis and business-as-usual contributions are no longer adequate,” CEO Fanele Mondi tells Engineering News.
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Industry bodies warn Germany that they need support to fulfil offshore wind power plans

The VDMA, the largest association for machinery and equipment manufacturers in Europe, has joined other industry associations to warn European countries in general and Germany in particular that massive offshore wind power expansion projects need secure supply chains and skilled workforces if they are to succeed. Currently, Germany plans to create more than 20 GW of offshore wind energy capacity by 2030. The country reportedly had, as of June last year, a total installed wind power capacity of …
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