A report by Climate Transparency has cautioned the Group of Twenty (G20) countries against quick-fix Covid-19 stimulus packages that favour fossil fuel industries. The global partnership has a shared mission to stimulate a “race to the top” in climate action in the G20 countries through enhanced transparency.
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President Cyril Ramaphosa used the platform of the third South Africa Investment Conference to underline the country’s potential to act a gateway to the African market, as he sought to reignite investor interest in an economy that has been underperforming for more than a decade and has been severely damaged since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. In 2018, Ramaphosa set a five-year target of securing R1.2-trillion in new investment and in 2018 and 2019 combined investment pledges worth R664-billion across 102 projects had been made by domestic and foreign investors. To date, R172 billion of the committed amount had actually been invested.
Solar photovoltaic (PV) power users, both utility-scale and rooftop users alike, will have to start thinking about, and develop, ways in which the waste of solar power generation facilities will be managed at the end of their lives.
In terms of the industry’s regulatory requirements, the solar industry will have to comply with the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) regulations, which is currently in a draft form for public comment, as well as the National Environmental Management: Waste Act of 2008.
Britain will move up a ban on new petrol and diesel cars and vans to 2030 and is eyeing 250 000 new jobs as part of a green industrial revolution, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said as he tries to meet Britain’s net zero emissions climate target. Johnson is seeking to show his government is on track to deliver manifesto promises after a tumultuous few days in which he was forced to self-isolate after coming into contact with someone with Covid-19, and his most senior adviser, arch Brexiteer Dominic Cummings, was ousted.
South Africa’s Independent Power Producer (IPP) Office reported on Tuesday that more than 60 respondents had signalled their intention, by the October 31 deadline for doing so, to participate in the Risk Mitigation Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (RMIPPPP), through which government is aiming to procure 2 000 MW of so-called ‘emergency power’. IPP Office CEO Tshifhiwa Bernard Magoro told participants to a virtual panel discussion held as part of the third South Africa Investment Conference that there had been a high degree of interest in the “technology agnostic” programme, criticised by some commentators as including criteria that made it difficult for renewables and battery solutions to submit competitive bids.
The decommissioning of coal-fired power stations without repurposing of labour will considerably exacerbate the unemployment crisis in South Africa and, therefore, workforce relocation and the associated skills development it calls for, needs to be considered ahead of time.
Energy & Water Sector Education Training Authority CFO and acting CEO Mpho Mookapele stated this during the virtually held Solar Power Africa conference on November 17.
State-owned power utility Eskom expects to complete its socioeconomic impact studies by the end of March for the planned shutdown of the Grootvlei, Komati and Hendrina power stations, in Mpumalanga, which are the first of ten coal plants scheduled for decommissioning by 2040. The decommissioning of the three power stations is anticipated to take place over the coming five years and Eskom has initiated a process to assess the potential for ‘repowering’ some of the stations using alternative generation technologies, including renewables, gas, biomass, battery storage and hydrogen.
The World Bank has provided a $305 000 grant for South Africa to develop a study on sustainable financial mechanisms for demand-side energy efficiency market transformation.
The beneficiaries of the study, the South African National Energy Development Institute (SANEDI) and the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE), will use the study to identify and develop appropriate financing mechanisms.
A total of 29 South African municipalities have already approved tariff frameworks for small-scale embedded generation (SSEG), with 282 MW of mostly rooftop solar capacity having be formally integrated into municipal networks, the South African Local Government Association (Salga) reports. The actual figure is likely to be significantly larger, but many SSEG facilities have not been registered with either a municipality of the regulator.
The Kangnas Wind Farm on November 15 achieved its commercial operations date, making it the first Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP) Bid Window 4 wind farm in the Northern Cape to come on stream.
Construction started in June, 2018 but was halted by the national Covid-19 lockdown, as were many other wind farm projects, only starting again after May 19.
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