South Africa’s State power utility has failed to tap $2.5-billion of cheap loans to build critical transmission infrastructure that would help end the country’s crippling energy crisis. That’s brought a landmark climate finance agreement — the Just Energy Transition Partnership — to a virtual halt, and extends the country’s reliance on coal plants. Finance ministry pressure on Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. to not take on new debt and a lack of clarity on how private investors can participate are hindering the deployment of about $7-billion of energy financing, according to a US Treasury official and six other people familiar with the situation.
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Technology developer, licensed technologies supplier and joint venture project developer Conflow Power Group (CPG) confirms the final agreement of $250-million funding from Cede Bank. The transaction resulted from 18 months of detailed analysis and structural discussions to establish the value and potential revenue for all exclusive territories issued under licence for Conflow’s iLamp technology, primarily within continental US.
Luminaire manufacturer BEKA Schréder’s wireless control system Schréder ITERRA offers a wireless control solution for lighting applications, providing a “robust, cost-effective and futureproof platform” for customers to manage their infrastructure to adapt the lighting while maximising energy savings. The solution is based on Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), the wireless communication standard fully compatible with all recent smart devices, including phones and tablets.
Eskom insists the performance of its unreliable generation fleet is on an improving trajectory, releasing a graphic-heavy statement on February 22 disputing a recent report stating that its performance continued “going backwards”. The statement, which was published only hours after loadshedding was ramped up to Stage 4, also asserts the decline in the generation fleet’s energy availability factor (EAF), which has fallen consistently for the past six years, has been arrested.
Against the backdrop of a profoundly challenging macroeconomic environment where South Africa’s economy is expected to continue underperforming, averaging at 1.6% growth in the next three years, innovative interventions are needed to turn the current trajectory around, said the Agricultural Business Chamber of South Africa (Agbiz) chairperson Francois Strydom. “Increased spending on grants and other social security measures may be needed in the short term, but a shrinking tax base cannot sustain this trend in the long run. As [Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana] noted, we need to grow the pie.”
Last year, Cape Town paid out R25-million to businesses which sold their surplus renewable energy to the city. And, starting this year, private citizens would be able to do the same. These developments were highlighted by Cape Town Executive Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis in an address to the Africa Green Economy Summit 2024, being held in Cape Town. He described this development as “the democratisation of energy” and affirmed that it “excited” him. The city had also, over the past year, completed three rounds of utility-scale renewable energy procurement bids, with a total capacity of 600 MW. The companies concerned could now start construction of their projects. A fourth bid round was still open (it would close in mid-April).
Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana maintained focus on fiscal discipline and balancing the need to address socioeconomic challenges facing the country, industry organisation Minerals Council South Africa said in response to the Minister’s Budget Speech on February 21. South Africa, however, needs faster growth of private and public sector fixed investment, and rapid implementation of deep structural reforms to allow the private sector to participate in key areas of the economy, it stressed.
The South African government will release a request for proposals (RFP) in the coming months seeking private sector investment into a pilot electricity grid infrastructure project. The National Treasury confirms that government has been working in partnership with the International Finance Corporation on the short-term options for “off-balance-sheet financing to accelerate private-sector investment in transmission, without negatively affecting Eskom’s balance sheet and the fiscus”.
Data centre infrastructure and services company Teraco will start construction of a 120 MW utility-scale solar photovoltaic (PV) facility in the Free State after securing its first grid capacity allocation from State-owned Eskom. The grid capacity allocation enables it to connect the planned 120 MW solar facility to the national electrical grid. The power generated will be wheeled across Eskom and municipal power networks to Teraco’s facilities across South Africa.
Bold, scaleable and collaborative – these are the three characteristics of the project that will clinch the $1-million Milken–Motsepe Prize in Green Energy, says Milken Institute senior director Dr Emily Musil Church. The Milken Institute is a nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank bringing together “the best ideas and innovative resourcing to develop blueprints for tackling some of our most critical global issues”.
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