After setting a record in 2015 for the most consecutive days of using solely renewable energy, Costa Rica has bested themselves and beat their own record by going 300 straight days using only renewable energy. 
The country gets its clean energy from a variety of sources, with hydropower being the largest provider — making up 78 percent of the country’s renewable energy, per Newsweek. Wind and geothermal energy each make up 10 percent of the nation’s clean energy, followed by biomass and solar each at around 1 percent.
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While the feat of nearly one year using only clean energy is an impressive feat, there is a bit more to the story: The figure only applies to electricity — and gas usage for powering vehicles and providing heat were not surveyed. 
Dr. Monica Araya — a clean development adviser for Costa Rica — called the latest accomplishment “fantastic,” but readily admitted that the country still has a way to go in terms of clean energy. 

She explained, “It hides a paradox, which is that nearly 70 percent of all our energy consumption is oil.” 
Despite existing challenges, Costa Rica has long been dedicated to sustainability and, earlier this year, became the first country to ban fossil fuels. The country’s new president, Carlos Alvarado, made the announcement of their plan to become the first decarbonized country in the world during his inauguration in May of this year.  

“Decarbonization is the great task of our generation, and Costa Rica must be one of the first countries in the world to accomplish it, if not the first,” he declared. “We have the titanic and beautiful task of abolishing fossil fuels in our economy to make way for the use of clean and renewable energies.”

Earlier this year, President Alvarado announced plans put in place to end fossil fuel use in the country 2021 — the same year that marks the 200th anniversary of Costa Rican independence.

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The wide-scale adoption of renewable-energy projects throughout South Africa will result in a more cost-effective and cleaner national energy supply, says renewable-energy development and management company G7 Renewable Energies.

“About 20 years ago, the renewables debate was about environmental considerations and whether it was necessary to introduce cleaner forms of electricity generation,” explains G7 Renewable Energies MD Kilian Hagemann.
However, he adds that now the growing global popularity of renewables is enabling original-equipment manufacturers to lower the costs associated with renewable-energy equipment through economies of scale and efficiency improvements.
For instance, the shift towards competitive auctions worldwide has accelerated the product development cycles of turbine manufacturers in the wind industry, with manufacturers producing bigger and more efficient models – which allow for a lower cost of electricity and hence greater competitiveness – every year, Hagemann explains.

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He says, while opponents of wind and solar energy have been outraged by reports that State-owned power utility Eskom is paying independent power producers (IPPs) an estimated R2/kWh – which applies to less than 5% of the total installed generation in the country – supporters of renewables point out that these costs have come down to R0.6/kWh over five bidding rounds under the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Plan (REIPPPP).

Hagemann adds that the first round of renewable projects procured in 2011 are being paid more than the reported R2/kWh, while the third-round facilities are being paid less, reiterating that the uptake costs for renewable projects are continually decreasing.

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There is considerable support in South Africa for the notion that a transition in the electricity system from coal to renewable energy will trigger a jobs bloodbath at both Eskom and the Mpumalanga coal mines. A detailed analysis of the job numbers, however, suggests quite the opposite. In fact, it points to there being at least 30% more jobs in a fleet comprising solar photovoltaic (PV) and wind farms when compared with an energy-equivalent coal fleet.

The Department of Energy’s (DoE’s) Integrated Energy Plan includes a study on the job-intensity of different power-generating technologies. Applying these assumptions to two hypothetical power systems with the same yearly energy output will be indicative. To achieve a 100 terrawatt-hour per annum (TWh/a) production rate with coal-fired power stations, a 14 GW fleet would have to be built, operated and maintained in perpetuity. With a lifetime assumption of 30 years, roughly 0.5 GW of new coal-fired plant would need to be built yearly, in perpetuity, to sustain the 100 TWh/a output. Applying the DoE job-intensity data suggests that such a fleet would create 20 486 permanent direct jobs in construction (at the 0.5 GW/a build rate) and operations of the associated coal mines and the power stations.

​Achieving the same 100 TWh yearly outcome using wind and solar PV plants would require a 45 GW fleet, comprising 25 GW of solar PV capacity to produce 50 TWh/a and a 20 GW wind fleet to produce the 50 TWh/a balance. Solar PV plants have a lifetime of 25 years, wind farms 20 years. Hence, 1 GW each would need to be built yearly, in perpetuity, to keep the output constant at 100 TWh/a. Building and operating such a fleet in perpetuity will require 26 475 permanent direct jobs – 15 125 in construction and 11 350 in operations. Hence, significantly more jobs are needed to build and operate a renewables fleet in perpetuity than is the case for a system based on coal, and that is without adding the jobs required in the flexible power stations, such as gas, biogas or batteries, needed to balance the renewables-based system.

How do these theoretical numbers compare with reality?

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President Cyril Ramaphosa has announced a plan to rescue state-owned power company Eskom by separating it into three units. According to consultants Frost & Sullivan, although that may not be enough to completely address the utility’s financial crisis it may further encourage investment in renewables.
FEBRUARY 11, 2019 EMILIANO BELLINI
South African president Cyril Ramaphosa used his State of the Nation speech to address one of the key issues facing the country’s energy sector, the long-running financial crisis at state-owned electric utility Eskom.

The struggles of the power company have represented the main roadblock to the deployment of solar and other renewables in South Africa in recent years.

Ramaphosa said, in his speech last week, bold steps must be taken to avert a crisis at the utility. “To bring credibility to the turnaround and to position South Africa’s power sector for the future, we shall immediately embark on a process of establishing three separate entities – Generation, Transmission and Distribution – under Eskom Holdings,” the president said. “This will ensure that we isolate cost and give responsibility to each appropriate entity.”

The split, Ramaphosa said, would also enable the three new entities to better raise funding. “It is imperative that we undertake these measures without delay to stabilize Eskom’s finances, ensure security of electricity supply and establish the basis for long-term sustainability,” he added.​

Eskom’s debt mountain, according to its financial results, stood at around ZAR419.2 billion ($30.8 billion) at the end of September. As Eskom is the buyer of the power generated thus far under the country’s Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement program (REIPPP), its lack of funds has pushed it to delay the signing of several PPAs awarded in rounds 3.5 and four of the program.

Despite that slowdown, 27 outstanding PPAs were signed in April and a new 1.8 GW round to be held this year was announced.

In March 2017, French development agency the AFD agreed to provide Eskom with a multi-tranche ZAR6 billion credit facility, intended for projects which are part of the utility’s grid improvement plan to integrate renewable energy and develop transnational power supply networks.

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Performance of South Africa’s small, but expanding, renewable-energy fleet point to a positive contribution from the country’s wind and solar plants during those hours towards the end of 2018 when Eskom resorted to load-shedding.

Compiled by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) Energy Centre, the statistics highlight a particularly strong correlation between the daily generation profile of the country’s 1 479 MW solar photovoltaic (PV) fleet and the times of the day that load-shedding occurred in June, July, November and December.
​In total, Eskom resorted to rotational power cuts on 12 days last year, equating to 128 hours of either Stage 1 (1 000 MW), Stage 2 (2 000 MW), or Stage 3 (3 000 MW), or about 138 GWh of unserved energy.

The utility began resorting to load-shedding again in 2019, declaring Stage 4 (4 000 MW) from 13:00 on February 11. Eskom last declared such a large level of load-shedding during its 2014/15 financial year under its previous Stage 3 definition, which had a wider range and which has since been revised to one where each stage represents 1 000 MW.

Last year, most of the incidents took place in late November and early December. Supply has been negatively affected by the fact that Eskom’s summer maintenance coincided with high levels of unplanned breakdowns across the coal fleet, exacerbated by inadequate coal supplies, poor coal quality and sub-par contributions from the units in commercial operation at the Medupi and Kusile power station projects.

Although still a small contributor to South Africa’s overall production of electrical energy, the CSIR statistics show that the country’s operational utility-scale wind, solar PV and concentrated solar power (CSP) plants helped mitigate the impact of the system’s imbalances.

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CAPE TOWN (miningweekly.com) – The mining sector has been encouraged to use more renewable energy and tighten up on energy efficiency, with the support of the South African National Energy Development Institute (Sanedi).
Energy Minister Jeff Radebe said the mining industry would need innovative and novel solutions to reduce energy consumption and produce more with less. It also needed ways to reduce the high carbon content of certain products and high-emission processes.
“Sanedi is ready to explore the best possible approaches and practices to relieve and assist the mining sector in introducing reliable and affordable sustainable energy while moving away from some of the traditional and conventional practices,” the Minister said in a speech read by the Department of Energy’s deputy director-general Mokgadi Modise, during the Investing in African Mining Indaba, on Tuesday.

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The African National Congress kicked off the debate in its election manifesto published in mid-January. Instead of playing down this potentially divisive energy issue, the ruling party chose to detail a vision of major investment in renewable energy as the path to a secure power future for the country.
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President Cyril Ramaphosa has set up a presidential task team to explore optimal ways to address these big issues. One of its remits is to come up with a new role for Eskom. Its recommendations are expected to include that the power utility is broken up into smaller units: power generation, electricity transmission on the national grid and distribution to customers.

But the most contentious issue by far is the role of coal in the country’s future energy mix. The task team is likely to endorse the gradual closure of coal power plants over the next 30 years. This proposal has already been articulated in the government’s latest draft Integrated Resource Plan, the country’s official electricity plan that guides the establishment of new power plants (and closure of old ones).

But winding down the country’s dependency on coals will take huge political will, as well as workable plans to mitigate against job losses.

Tied to the country reducing its dependency on coal is a move towards renewable energy. Energy specialists argue reliable and cost-effective electricity can best be supplied by the massive expansion of renewable energy capacity.

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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.

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​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.

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