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SANEDI continues roll-out of cool roofs solution

While South Africa’s energy supply continues to fall short, government organisation the South African National Energy Development Institute (SANEDI) says it looks forward to continuing its roll out of an energy efficient cooling solution – known as ‘cool roofs’. Cool roofing involves the coating of roofs with a durable, reflective membrane which reflects the heat of the sun.
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Kibo’s UK subsidiary to acquire 9 MW flexible gas power project

Africa-focused energy company Kibo Energy’s wholly owned UK subsidiary Sloane Developments will acquire a production-ready 9 MW flexible power project. The acquisition in line with Kibo’s strategy to acquire and develop a portfolio of small-scale flexible power generation assets that will help balance out the UK’s national grid at critical times.
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EIUG appoints Mondi as new CEO

The Energy Intensive Users Group (EIUG), whose mining and manufacturing members account for over 40% of the electrical energy consumed in South Africa, announced the appointment of Fanele Mondi as its new CEO. Prior to joining the EIUG, Mondi worked at Eskom for over 23 years, 12 years of which were as a senior manager.
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Eskom launches new ‘system status’ portal in bid to begin bolstering transparency

South Africa’s electricity utility Eskom has added a new page to its website through which it is providing information relating to the status and performance of the power system, including the use of load-shedding as a mechanism to stabilise the national electricity grid. The webpage, which bears the prosaic title ‘System status and other related data’, is updated every 24 hours.
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Dube-Ncube congratulates CHEM Energy for opening S Africa’s first fuel cell company

KwaZulu-Natal Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs MEC Nomusa Dube-Ncube has congratulated CHEM ENERGY, a subsidiary of Taiwanese conglomerate CHEM Corporation, which has opened its $200-million fuel cell production factory in KwaZulu-Natal at the Dube TradePort Special Economic Zone. “This represents a milestone accomplishment for foreign investment, and we are excited to team up with CHEM and industry to help rapidly expand the adoption of this important technology and the growth of highly skilled jobs in this new industry sector,” said Dube-Ncube. 
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Bushveld creates new entity to provide vanadium electrolyte rental option

Aim-listed integrated primary vanadium producer and energy storage provider Bushveld Minerals, which owns high-grade vanadium assets in South Africa, has formed a special purpose company in partnership with Invinity Energy Systems (Invinity), named Vanadium Electrolyte Rental Limited (VERL).

VERL will provide a vanadium electrolyte rental option to Invinity’s customers.

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BLSA implores govt to take on energy, spectrum policy with equal urgency as pandemic

In her latest weekly newsletter, Business Leadership South Africa (BLSA) CEO Busi Mavuso questions why government could implement “urgent” policies for the Covid-19 crises, but not for energy or spectrum allocation, which are also long-standing urgent issues.

“The State acted fast [at the start of Covid-19], pulled together experts and worked hard to analyse the best options and then implement them to slow the spread of the disease. We had a glimpse of what is possible.

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Sasol seeks carbon-utilisation solutions for South African operations

Energy and chemicals group Sasol has initiated a process through which it aims to identify potential partners for the development and demonstration of technologies that can utilise the carbon dioxide (CO2) produced at its South African operations as part of a broader strategy to lower its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. A CO2 utilisation request for information (RFI) was issued on September 4 and can be accessed by emailing Sasol at CO2utilisation@sasol.com.
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Eskom tightens reins on power station managers

The Eskom board has pledged its support for group CE André de Ruyter’s decision, on September 3, to suspend the Tutuka and Kendal power station managers, pending disciplinary inquiries.

The decision was taken after load-shedding was escalated from Stage 2 to Stage 4 on September 2 and 3.

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SA’s Eskom suspends managers over power station breakdowns

South Africa’s Eskom said on Friday it had suspended managers at two of its power stations after breakdowns which forced the utility to ramp up rolling blackouts earlier this week to avoid tripping the national grid. Eskom, which has implemented rotational powercuts on and off for more than a decade due to infrastructure failures largely blamed on years of inadequate maintenance, said its group chief executive André de Ruyter suspended the managers at the Tutuka and Kendal stations on Thursday morning pending disciplinary inquiries. 
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