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Next renewables bid window ‘will not be location agnostic’

Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa reports that the country’s next renewables bidding round will “not be location agnostic” and will seek to direct projects to areas where there is sufficient grid connection capacity available. “This time we’re going to be specific around where these location should be for the new projects because we want to ensure that there’s some degree of alignment between the projects and the availability of transmission capacity,” the Minister said during his latest update on the implementation of the Energy Action Plan.
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Germany will lend South Africa €500m for energy switch

Germany, through its KfW development bank, will as soon as Friday sign an agreement to lend South Africa €500-million ($543-million) to help it transition away from the use of coal-fired electricity, people with knowledge of the pact said. The money forms part of the $8.8-billion in climate financing offered to South Africa by some of the world’s richest nations in a 2021 agreement known as the Just Energy Transition Partnership, the people said, asking not to be identified as the information isn’t public yet.
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Gas-supply cliff is South Africa’s next crisis, energy body says

South Africa’s supply of natural gas is set to plunge within the next three to four years and there’s a risk of a shortfall triggering the country’s next economic crisis, the head of an industry body warned. With Sasol set to curb production of the fuel from its fields in Mozambique between 2026 and 2027 as reserves dwindle and retain more output for its own operations, 300 000 to 400 000 jobs at firms that use gas for industrial purposes are endangered, said James Mackay, the chief executive officer of the Energy Council of South Africa.
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Exxaro, Cennergi reach sodturning milestones for Lephalale solar project

Diversified mining and renewable energy solutions company Exxaro Resources and its wholly-owned subsidiary Cennergi on November 16 unveiled the Lephalale solar project (LSP), with the sodturning serving as a ceremonial opening of the project. The project is a utility-scale behind-the-meter solar photovoltaic (PV) plant.
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Eskom’s hockey-stick shaped grid deployment plan comes under scrutiny

The hockey-stick-curve shape of Eskom’s ten-year execution plan for delivering much-needed new transmission infrastructure continues to come under intense scrutiny from domestic industry, with warnings that the dearth of work in the early years is undermining their immediate sustainability and prospects of participating in the later ramp-up. Eskom’s current Transmission Development Plan (TDP) outlines the need for the installation of more than 14 000 km of new high-voltage powerlines and 105 865 MVA of transformer capacity for the ten-year period to 2032.
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Cape Town to announce preferred bidders on power projects next year, says tariff reform required

The preferred bidders for the City of Cape Town’s 200 MW embedded independent power producer (IPP) programme will be announced in mid-2024, says Energy MMC Beverley van Reenen. The first power from these projects is expected in 2026.
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New Eskom curtailment framework to unlock 4 GW of grid capacity in wind-rich provinces

Eskom has confirmed that it will release a curtailment addendum to its recently published Generation Connection Capacity Assessment (GCCA) that will unlock 4 GW of connection capacity immediately in the grid-constrained Eastern and Western Cape provinces. Published at the end of October, the GCCA indicated the grid capacity in the two wind-rich regions had been fully absorbed, along with that in the Northern Cape and Eskom’s Hydra Central grid area, which borders the Cape provinces and the Free State.
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Public hearings for Koeberg life extension to start in February

The National Nuclear Regulator (NNR) will hold public hearings into State-owned utility Eskom’s application to extend the operational life of the Koeberg Nuclear Power Station (KNPS) by 20 years, in February next year. Eskom is currently authorised to operate the KNPS, which comprises two pressurised water reactor units, which began commercial operations in July 1984 for Unit 1 and November 1985 for Unit 2. The units are set to reach 40 years of commercial operation in 2024 and 2025, respectively.
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Eskom says Koeberg Unit 1 being started as another resumption target is missed

Terence Eskom reports that it has received permission from the National Nuclear Regulator (NNR) to restart Koeberg Unit 1, but has once again missed a recently updated target date for grid synchronisation.
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There are already more clean-energy than fossil-fuel jobs and gap is set to widen

More people work in the energy sector today than in 2019, almost exclusively because of the growth in clean-energy sectors, which have employed more workers than fossil fuels since 2021, a new International Energy Agency (IEA) study shows. The ‘World Energy Employment 2023’ report states that energy sector employment rose by 3.4-million to reach 67-million in 2022, underpinned by 4.7-million more clean-energy jobs, increasing the total number of workers employed across clean-energy industries to 35-million.
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