If businesses and households generate their own solar power it will have a negative effect on municipal revenue generation, but municipalities will need to find a role to play in this new development, says Dr Zweli Mkhize, minister of cooperative governance and traditional affairs.

Mkhize was addressing the Association of Municipal Electricity Utilities’ technical convention in Pretoria on Monday.

“Development is impossible without energy. Our industries, government departments, households, streets, hospitals and schools need energy to keep running. You are engaged in the important business of supplying this important resource,” Mkhize told the delegates.

The future of the generation, transmission and distribution of energy was changing rapidly and it was vital that municipalities kept on track, he said.

The government wanted to provide all citizens with access to basic services. This meant that all forms of energy generation should be employed, from traditional coal-fired generation plants through to hydro plants, solar farms, wind turbines and small embedded generation.

Nearly 190 municipalities were licensed through the National Electricity Regulator of South Africa to distribute electricity to consumers.

“Already this space occupied by local municipalities is becoming more complex as other forms of electricity generation are becoming effective. Renewable energy is changing the face of the energy game and municipalities are responding, simply to provide affordable services to citizens,” Mkhize said.

But renewable energy also came with threats and opportunities. Mkhize used the example of solar farms being erected within the borders of a municipality and being fed into the municipal network as part of the generation and transmission combination. This challenge will have to be managed well so that the total effect on the national grid is not compromised.

“Businesses and households are installing solar arrays on their rooftops. This will no doubt have a negative impact on municipal revenue generation,” Mkhize said.

“Municipalities will need to find a role to play in this new development and ensure that the installations comply to safety standards and the quality of the generated energy should be equal to that received from Eskom. They would also need to ensure that when this energy is fed back into the grid, the correct metering and accounting is in place to accommodate this embedded energy.”

Mkhize said programmes in the renewable energy sector would stimulate local economic development.

Read more......

​Massmart launches sixth solar plant becoming the biggest producer of renewable energy in the South African Retail Sector 

Makro Strubens Valley in Gauteng became the sixth Massmart store to make use of renewable energy. The store has a 480 kilowatt (kWh) peak plant that consists of 147 car park-mounted polycrystalline PV panels. The plant provides nearly half of the stores daily energy requirements and is estimated to provide 24% of the stores total annual energy consumption. 

The Group’s first solar plant went live in 2016 at Makro Carnival in Brakpan, Gauteng. Today, Massmart has a total of six solar plants and together they have the capacity to generate approximately 4.4 million kWh of renewable energy a year. This makes Massmart the biggest producer of renewable energy in the South African retail sector. 

Massmart Sustainability Executive Alexander Haw says “The rollout of commercially-viable renewable energy solutions at selected stores is in line with a broader commitment to reduce the Group environmental footprint.”

Since 2010 Massmart has been greening a significant amount of stores and distribution centres with the aim of minimising its environmental footprint and reducing costs. The Group has achieved this by ensuring that energy efficiency and water conservation remain a key priority. 

Massmart’s water conservation methods involve the capture and reuse of rain water from stores roofs and condensate from refrigeration plants. Through these efforts, in the past three years alone, the Group has saved more than 50 million litres of water and produced approximately 4 million kWh of renewable energy. 

Haw concludes “Water and energy insecurity is a growing concern in South Africa. Not only are we amongst the world’s 30 driest countries, we are also among the top 20 energy intensive countries. That is why we are intent on materially lessening the Group’s collective footprint through reusing water and reducing our energy consumption.” 

The South African Ministry of Energy is to release an updated electricity plan this month. Analysts will be hoping it will launch the country’s power sector into a modern sustainable, clean power future, and that outdated, and financially unfeasible facets of previous plans will be laid to rest.

The Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) projects the country’s long-term electricity needs and defines the infrastructure developments needed to meet power production. Government uses it to work out the number and type of power stations to construct, as well as the time frames for their commissioning and the occasional retirement of old plants.

The intention was to update the plan every two years. But the last plan, adopted in 2011, is already seven years old. It envisaged a substantial increase in electricity demand from 39GW in 2010 to 68GW in 2030. The extra capacity was to come from an additional 9.6GW of nuclear power, 17.6GW from solar and wind renewable technologies (which were quite new at the time) and 6.3GW from new coal plants.

Read more........

Nearly everything we understand about global warming can be dated back to 1979 with data collected over the years confirming the causes and effects of human-induced climate change.
Where are we today in world efforts to prevent global warming?

Director of the Climate Reality Project’s International Program, Ethan Spaner joined Azania Mosaka on her show to answer this and other questions.

Sharing more on the Climate Reality Project, Spaner says the main goal is to contribute to solving climate change by mobilising global activists to build public awareness.

We do that by holding very large three day training all around the world. Al Gore leads them. We have about 15 000 people who have gone through this programme globally, just under 500 of those individuals live in South Africa.
— Ethan Spaner, Director of the Climate Reality Project’s International Program

Spaner says there is pressure on governments to take the necessary policy steps and set aside the necessary finances to mitigate and adapt to the effects of climate change.

Speaking on the Paris agreement, Spaner says the document allows each country to implement it in a way that it is protective of its population and allows its economy to thrive. He says renewable energy as one solution has proven to be beneficial.

The good news is that the benefits of transitioning from renewable energy from things like coal, gas, are astounding especially in the African context.
— Ethan Spaner, Director of the Climate Reality Project’s International Program

If that renewable energy is distributed - if there are solar panels on rooftops, wind power turbines in rural areas - things that are not necessarily one big solar farm run by a big utility, what you see when you do that is, it gives electricity access to the South Africans who still don't consistently have that access and you can do it for quite cheap.
— Ethan Spaner, Director of the Climate Reality Project’s International Program

Source.....

Training for certification as a Renewable Energy Professional (REP) at the Nelson Mandela University (NMU) always comes with a welcome bonus for candidates as they enjoy the vast variety of site visits to experience renewable and alternative energy solutions first hand, as well as research facilities available in the friendly city. REP is an Association of Energy Engineers (AEE) program to distinguish professionals in the renewable energy industry through an internationally recognised certification program that requires continuous learning. 

NMU and the Energy Training Foundation (EnTF) have over the last 3 years teamed up to present the REP program under the AEE license in Port Elizabeth with Dr Sean Poole from NMU being the accredited AEE trainer for REP. Port Elizabeth is a favourite training site for REP due to the added excursions for trainees at no additional costs. This year the group travelled in the electric Joule vehicles from NMU to Van Stadens to visit the wind farms, whereafter they stopped over for a tour of the Rhino House in Crossways which is the epitome of a house operating completely off the grid. A visit to the algae plant, eYuilo mobility facility, solar research centre and the wind research, as well as the battery research facility added great value to experience renewable and alternative energy solutions in action. Refreshments and lunch for the excursion is sponsored by Rhino Energy.  

The REP theory modules were presented at NMU and the syllabus and exam covers a variety of alternatives to generate energy including hydropower, geothermal, large scale alternative utility systems, solar thermal systems, PV systems, biomass with integrated gasifier-genset, biofuels, waste-to-energy, hydrogen fuel cells, hydrogen gas vehicles, energy storage combinations with renewable generations, among a myriad of others.
The REP training covers a packed program during three days delving into the causes and effects of sustainability problems, energy categories, energy intensity of economics, solutions to carbon reduction, renewable energy projections, principles of urban sustainability, some history on the various protocols, carbon credits and offsets, carbon calculators, carbon economics and management, energy storage applications, alternative energy strategies for buildings, renewable fuels like vegetable oils, synthetic gas, compressed gas, methanol, fuel cells, with a host of other topics and financial and business case considerations.
The next REP course with all the practical visits to the wind farm, Rhino House, algae plant etc will take place in Port Elizabeth at Nelson Mandela University from 19-23 November 2018. Plan ahead, and attend one of the most enjoyable courses in South Africa.
To book your space on any of the AEE courses held in Sub-Saharan Africa visit our website on www.energytrainingfoundation.co.za or email yolanda@entf.co.za for a customised training and practical education program for your staff or clients.

he City of Cape Town is working hard to meet its target for renewable energy to make up 20% of total energy used in the city by 2020.

It is also following international blueprints and plans to implement more renewable energy projects, says City of Cape Town energy executive director Kadri Nassiep.
He told a South African National Energy Association event, in Cape Town, on Wednesday evening, that the city was ramping up various initiatives, including embedded generation, but was hampered by regulatory issues.  
“Renewable energy penetration is on the increase but is not as fast as we would like it to be. The independent power producer (IPP) procurement process has been fraught with regulatory and policy issues.
“Cape Town has abundant wind and solar photovoltaic (PV) resources, but we need to overcome regulatory and political barriers to raise our numbers significantly.”

IPP procurement is currently only allowed by Eskom and requires Ministerial approval.

​Read more.......

Africa’s energy industry is not declining, but it is being disrupted, says GE gas power systems anglophone Africa sales MD Nosizwe Dlengezele.
​
Addressing media at a briefing, in Johannesburg, on Tuesday, she noted that, ultimately, people who rely on the energy market will find ways to acquire the service without having to be dependent on larger models that create electricity provisions.

“We are seeing self-generation as a big theme, mainly in the renewables space. Smaller rural communities, for example, are finding ways to access electricity to meet their most basic electricity needs,” she said.

She highlighted that one of these ways was in the form of microgrids, with more communities capacitating themselves from a generation and transmission point of view, without being dependent on larger infrastructure projects.

Regarding energy storage, she said that the technological will was there, however, commercial reality remained a challenge.

“We need to ensure that the inclusion of energy storage technologies become bankable and commercial,” she noted, adding that battery storage prices were soaring.

Dlengezele stated that technical and financial losses were major challenges in the electricity space, pointing out that more than half of generated electricity was lost through inefficient transmission distribution systems and networks, electricity theft, and people not paying for electricity.

Read more.....

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) is witnessing a growing appetite for renewable energy with most countries in the region making massive investments in solar energy as an alternative source of power.
Zimbabwe, Namibia, Zambia, South Africa and Botswana are constructing solar power plants that have the capacity to light up cities and households and in turn ease pressure on the traditional sources of power that supply the national electricity grids of the respective countries.
Most countries in the region rely on hydro and thermal power for domestic and industrial use.
Just like its neighbours, Zimbabwe has in recent years been making huge investments in grassroots solar energy projects for domestic use and also for powering agriculture.
Just last week, President Emmerson Mnangagwa toured the Nyangani non-renewable energy power project in Mutoko which has the capacity to contribute 10MW into the national energy grid.
Zimbabwe has a green energy plan to promote the use of renewable energy with the initial aim of making up to a 600MW shortfall in electricity production.
According to the Ministry of Energy and Power Development’s final draft policy, Zimbabwe wants to generate at least 1 000 MW of power or 16% of its total projected generation through solar and other renewable energy systems by 2025.
The country’s thermal and hydro electricity supply is not enough to meet the country’s electricity demand and the Ministry of Energy aims to meet the shortage with solar generated electricity.
Currently, Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) generates 1 500MW against a demand of about 2 200MW.

Read more.....

On World Environment Day, renewable energy companies are ecstatic that South Africa has signed a R58 billion renewable energy deal to replace nuclear plants.
The cancellation of the nuclear deal was largely due to the work of activists Liz McDaid and Makoma Lekalakala, who won the Goldman Environmental Prize for their efforts in nullifying it.

McDaid, from the Southern African Faith Communities’ Environment Institute, and Lekalakala, from Earthlife Africa in Joburg, are grassroots activists who stifled the government’s R1trillion nuclear deal, which would have had an irreversible impact on the environment.

The pair were selected by an international panel and a worldwide network of environmental organisations for “protecting South Africa from a lifetime of nuclear waste”.

McDaid and Lekalakala are hopeful that Energy Minister Jeff Radebe’s confirmation signals a return to ethical governance in our energy sector.

“We remain cautious. We will have to wait and see how the minister handles the development of the Integrated Resource Plan, to know whether we are truly moving away from energy corruption to a more just energy future. ”

“What we want to see now is the government taking a more decisive, no-nonsense approach to those officials who acted unethically, and in some cases illegally, in deliberate efforts to deceive the public. This would be a step in the right direction and would go a long way to restoring faith in the executive again,” said McDaid.

Lekalakala said the minister’s announcement was great, but more was needed to stop environmental damage.

“With the way things are right now, there is no place for nuclear or fossil fuels in our energy mix. We need to prevent any further impacts from nuclear energy - much of which we don’t yet fully understand - and coal. Nature is crying out for us to do something to stop any further degradation of the environment.

“While this year’s focus largely centres around eradicating single-use plastics from our daily lives, we hope the minister’s announcement signals an end to government’s obsession with nuclear. This will give our country a better chance at more fully harnessing natural, clean and renewable energy sources,” said Lekalakala.

The replacement renewable energy deal was made by Radebe with 27 independent power producers (IPPs), which would see 2300MW of generation capacity added to the national grid.

The Northern Cape will receive 15 new wind, solar photovoltaic (PV) and concentrated solar projects; Eastern Cape will see four wind developments; North West will have four solar PV projects; and the Western Cape will add two more wind projects to its portfolio.

The Free State will add one hydropower undertaking, and Mpumalanga will host its first IPP development, in the form of a biomass project.

The developments will generate about 58000 new jobs in the construction phase, with further employment opportunities created throughout the projects.

On a sustainability level, the projects are projected to offset 8.1 million tons of carbon dioxide and to save 9.6million kilolitres of water per year, which is enough to cover the annual water needs of 1.2 million people.

Source.....

The publication of new draft rules by NERSA (the National Energy Regulator of SA) has left many South Africans completely aghast. Under these rules, every solar panel on every house – and every backup generator – will have to be registered with the government. These draft rules leave no room for exceptions, and any form of power generator of any size will have to be registered. These include photovoltaic (PV) solar/wind/biogas/diesel/fuel cell generators.

Whether you’re connected to the national electricity system or whether you’re entirely off-grid, you will have to register.

Ted Blom, a partner at Mining & Energy Advisors, says these rules are draconian. “They apply to all small installations, whether for private or public use and whether they are to be connected to the grid or not,” Blom believes. “These rules are poorly drafted and unworkable and will result in wide-scale civil disobedience if promulgated,” he goes on to warn.

Such regulations will result in a permitting system, and eventually, licence fees will be instituted to fund policing of installations. This added cost will give rise to yet another financial burden for ordinary SA citizens.

NERSA has invited comment from the public. It is vital to note this: if you do NOT take action and comment on the proposed regulations, your inaction will be seen as a tacit agreement with the proposed rules!

Valsa Trading opposes the NERSA draft, and will voice our disagreement in the strongest possible terms. We all have until the 31st of May to stand up and make our opinions heard. The following link is a simple way of providing feedback on the matter, and each and every comment will be handed to NERSA. Please stand up and be counted! Click on this link to comment:

www.eeco.co.za/projects/generator

UPDATE: Last week, NERSA’s executive manager for electricity regulation, Mbulelo Ncetezo, told SABC2 that the draft rules have been withdrawn until the Department of Energy gazettes a revised notice on this. While we welcome this news, we still believe it vital that as many people as possible register their comments and objections in order that NERSA will never be in the position to say that we, the public, DIDN’T give our feedback on the matter.

Source ...................  Valsa Trading Pty Ltd
Tel: +27 (0)11 794 1306 Cell: +27 (0)61 288 2572
www.valsa.co.za
techsales@valsa.co.za