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Africa must collaborate on green energy agenda
Minister in the Presidency for Electricity, Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, says intra-Africa collaboration will be important in the drive towards decarbonisation and strengthening energy security on the continent.
The Minister was addressing the UNESCO 9th Africa Engineering Week held in Gauteng on Tuesday.
“The power pool on the SADC [Southern African Development Community] side is essentially matured (sic). I’m told that there is a similar power pool that is taking shape on the eastern side and the western part of the continent. I think that once we pool all of that together, we are going to get to a situation where we are going to exploit the opportunities that are presented.
“The major discoveries of gas on the west coast of the continent… Namibia is far advanced in that. There’s a significant amount of deposits on the east side… Mozambique has been doing that for some time. Central Africa… the degree to which we are able to use hydro.
“If you pool all of these things together you can see that the possibilities of us greening becomes real and I think we are going to benefit from these opportunities and resources if we are able to…collaborate better. That level of cooperation will be necessary going into the future and then we become energy secure,” he said.
The minister further emphasised that because of its rich endowment in resources that are essential to the green economy, Africa must set its own standards.
“What drives us is the quest to ensure that we industrialise on the back of these renewable resources [and] on the back of the demand that is coming from the major western countries.
“We will define what those standards are as Africans; we don’t need to be lectured by someone from outside. We know what is in our collective interest and for as long as we are disjointed we are going to be super exploited. We must determine the standards and no-one should be doing that on our behalf,” Ramokgopa said.
The minister added that although renewable energy sources remain important, South Africa will pursue an energy mix that fits the country’s needs.
“Renewable energy is important. We are committed to decarbonisation and we are endowed. But remember that renewable energy survives of the redundancy of baseload - so coal, gas, nuclear [and] hydro are going to be part of the energy mix going into the future.
“The success of renewable energy is undergirded by the presence of baseloads so we are not about to abandon or relinquish that resource. It’s about making sure that there’s an optimal mix. It’s not a binary conversation, it’s not the one against the other but it’s doing both in a balanced way,” he said.
Turning to the South African context, Ramokgopa said the country – with its deep resources of minerals used in green hydrogen production – can take advantage of the world’s thirst for clean energy sources.
“It’s important that we are able to exploit these resources… the best radiation, the best wind speeds are found here on the continent and in this country. So it’s important that we are able to domesticate value addition. We know that…there are about 60 countries globally that have committed to a net zero path.
“Some of the most industrialised countries account for over 70% of the emissions and therefore they are prepared to pay a premium for them to access this green hydrogen. In some instances your market will be driven by the international market. For us as a country, because of the large scale amount of… industrial uses in the heavy industry, you can still deploy green hydrogen.
“And also the potential of the introduction of carbon borders is likely going to ensure that there’s an early uptake of this green hydrogen even given the cost premium so that these industries are able to continue to access those lucrative markets,” he said. – SAnews.gov.za
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NeoB
Wed, 09/27/2023 - 10:19
Africa's boldest and most ambitious cleantech start-ups will take part in the Energy Investment Village (https://apo-opa.info/468SsAw), an exciting deal-pitching event at the Green Energy Africa Summit (https://GreenEnergyAfricaSummit.com), to be held in the heart of South Africa's Cape Town on 10-11 October at the CTICC2.
Held under the theme, “Unlocking Africa's Sustainable Energy Potential,” the Green Energy Africa Summit (GEAS) will provide unrivalled opportunities throughout its two-day programme for the continent's leaders in energy, finance, and social development, to meet with international investors, to find sustainable solutions to Africa's energy needs and a just transition to a green economy.
This highly anticipated event advocates for the harmonisation of Africa's natural resources, as well as policy reforms, to help usher in an energy transition that ensures the continent remains competitive and attractive to global finance. With over 1000 delegates from 67 countries, GEAS invites both public and private stakeholders across the energy value chain to collaborate, offer solutions, and build partnerships to help unlock Africa's true socioeconomic potential.
GEAS is thrilled to welcome its strategic industry partners, including The Banking Association of South Africa (https://www.Banking.org.za/) and The African Forum for Utility Regulators (https://AFURnet.org/). This year's agenda features a strong mix of discussions within dedicated content streams, from the Energy Strategy Forum on day one, to the Green Energy and Green Finance Forums on day two. Attendees can look forward to country and regional spotlights on South Africa and West Africa, as well as sessions led by finance and energy heavyweights. Find the full GEAS 2023 agenda here: https://apo-opa.info/3rfJNxm
The Energy Investment Village (EIV) is the GEAS's Lion's Den-style pitching event for cleantech companies, which will be held on 11 October. The finalists will be given an extraordinary opportunity to gain exposure, network with potential clients, and receive vital market validation. Most importantly, they will be given the chance to pitch for funding (https://apo-opa.info/468SsAw) from international investors.
“Africa's traditional, fossil-fuel-based energy cannot keep pace with its swift development. While the continent's abundance of natural resources can enable clean energy innovations, constraints like access to finance impedes the opportunities for local clean-tech innovators. Events such as the EIV open up direct pathways to decision-makers and funders, and are a critical enabler of the clean-tech ecosystem,” says RIIS CEO Davis Cook.
In partnership with Saldanha Bay Innovation Campus (https://www.InnovationCampus.co.za/), RIIS (https://EnablingInnovation.Africa/), and Anza Capital (https://Anza.Holdings/), and supported by Africa Scotland, JSE, Oceanhub-Africa, Savant, Firecracker, CHIETA, and SASOL, the EIV is delighted to introduce the outstanding finalists that have been selected to present their projects, which aim to revolutionise the energy landscape and promote sustainable development in Africa:
Don't miss out on the chance to engage with these visionary entrepreneurs and experts, as they demonstrate how their projects will address the energy challenges across Africa. From scalable solutions for rural communities, to innovative grid technologies, these finalists promise to inspire, educate, and shape a greener future for the continent.
Organised by Hyve Group Plc., the Green Energy Africa Summit is where the world connects with the African Energy sector. Register to attend here https://GreenEnergyAfricaSummit.com/. Attend the Green Energy Africa Summit to be part of the solution and connect with industry leaders, charting the way towards a sustainable clean energy transition for Africa.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Green Energy Africa Summit.
Media Contact:
Amie Sparrow
PR Manager
amie.sparrow@hyve.group
About Green Energy Africa Summit:
The Green Energy Africa Summit is a high-level gathering advocating for policy reforms and the harmonisation of Africa's natural resources, to help pave the way for a just energy transition to ensure Africa remains competitive and attractive to global finance. Green Energy Africa Summit takes place in the heart of Cape Town at the Cape Town International Convention Centre 2 (CTICC2) from 10-11 October 2023.
Agreements to aid energy solutions
Minister in the Presidency for Electricity, Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa has emphasised that the agreements signed in the past week with Chinese state owned entities and the donation by the People's Republic of China are to address this country’s emergency energy solutions.
South Africa concluded a significant amount of agreements with Chinese state owned entities (SOEs) with the signing of two overarching memoranda that were witnessed by President Cyril Ramaphosa and President Xi Jinping.
South Africa hosted the 15th BRICS Summit last week and the country also hosted President Xi on his fourth State Visit to South Africa ahead of the Summit.
Addressing the media on the Energy Action Plan on Sunday, Ramokgopa explained that the two agreements include amongst others, addressing issues of green energy solutions, exploitations of renewable energy sources and the use of modern technology.
“The two agreements – the first one addresses issues around green energy solutions- the partnership agreement we will be entering in relation to the exploitation of renewable energy sources in our country; the use of modern technology and the degree to which we are able to connect renewable energy onto the grid.
“The rationale for entering with the Chinese in this regard is because they are a dominant player on the renewable energy space. They have 688 gigawatts of installed capacity of renewables, a combination of PV and wind. They have done one of the biggest expansions of transmission and they have also worked on the kind of transmission modernisation required to be able to accommodate the intermittency of renewable sources,” the Minister said.
In regards to the donation by the People's Republic of China, the Minister said this is aimed at addressing South Africa’s emergency energy solutions, which is targeted at key public facilities such as police stations, health institutions and correctional centres.
Minister Ramokgopa emphasised that provincial departments will play a role in identifying the key public areas.
“The second one, was an exchange of letters in relation to a donation that we are receiving from the People’s Republic of China that is meant to help us in addressing the emergency energy solution in the country.
“I did indicate that it’s likely going to be targeted in key public facilities such as hospitals, clinics, correctional services, and police stations. In this regard, we will be working with the nine provincial governments for them to be able to identify sites that are suitable for this.
“We already have a technical capacity that is supporting us in relation to the appropriateness of the technology solutions that are given to us and those that have been agreed upfront,” he said.
Ramokgopa further announced that the first shipment of the technology solutions by China is en route and an announcement will be made when it arrives in the country, having left Chinese shores on 14 August.
“We will announce at the right time when the first shipment lands and give an indication of the first public facilities that will benefit from this generous donation.”
Turning to the performance of the system for the past week, the Minister said that the available capacity has come down.
“I did indicate that we are beginning to normalise being above 28 000 megawatts on average. We have kept close to that most of the week and the average is about 27 561 megawatts,” he said.
“We did indicate that we were going to slow down planned outages and once we get out of a very difficult winter we are going to ramp up because we need to protect these machines, generation and units to ensure their sustainability and reliability going into the future.
“We still remain above 15 000 megawatts in relation to unplanned capacity lost factor. I made a point that we want to bring it down,” the Minister said.
Load shedding
On load shedding, Ramokgopa said government was confident the system was stabilising and the country will continue to have lower stages of load shedding as the system recovers.
“On the issue of performance, we are more that satisfied. We have shown where we moved from a historic low of 48% of energy availability factor. We have been averaging 60% energy availability factor.
“When we went to the winter period, the worst case scenario was Stage 8. We only had 30 hours of Stage 6. You can see the intensity of load shedding is coming down. The issues of outage slips, I have shown to you, they have come down from a high of 3 300 megawatts to 766 megawatts,” the Minister said. – SAnews.gov.za
DikelediM
Sun, 08/27/2023 - 13:07
Danfoss, a multi-national Danish engineering company, is celebrating its 30th anniversary in South Africa, marking three decades of growth and expansion in the region. Founded in 1933 by Danish engineer Mads Clausen, Danfoss has evolved into a global enterprise employing over 42,000 individuals worldwide. The company has recently focused on integrating its local presence in …
