South Africans have been battered by power shortages for several years. These have worsened to the point that towards the end of 2022 the country’s electricity utility, Eskom, had only half of its power generation capacity operational.

This has forced Eskom to escalate its rotational power cuts. By mid-January 2023, users were typically without electricity for 8 to 10 hours a day.

The situation is unlikely to improve much in the short to medium term.

It’s expected that this year, especially as power demand increases in winter, the country’s electricity supply will decline to the point where power may sometimes be available for only 12 hours a day.

Nor is the situation expected to improve in the medium to long term. The national electricity utility is in a precarious financial situation.

The result is that South Africans are increasingly being forced to explore alternative sources of electricity.

From big companies down to small households, entities are even considering whether it is possible to disconnect from the Eskom grid entirely and produce all their electricity in-house.
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Fifteen years ago South Africans had access to abundant electricity at some of the cheapest pricing in the world.

But since then electricity tariffs have skyrocketed at an average of four times the inflation rate.

Factories, mines, farms, businesses and individuals are now choosing to reduce their dependence on Eskom’s network by supplementing their electricity with in-house power generation.

While this lowers demand on the Eskom power supply, the level at which this has been happening so far is insufficient to substantially reduce power cuts.

The construction of larger private solar plants, already initiated by some bigger entities, as well as the growing interest in rooftop solar in residential areas, will gradually be felt. But this too will not stop power cuts completely.

Some entities may go as far as cutting themselves off from Eskom entirely. How feasible is this?

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President Cyril Ramaphosa says that the government is pulling on every resource it has to get power onto the grid as a matter of extreme urgency.

However, he said that the ‘energy action plan’ – announced six months ago – could not be implemented overnight and that measures would take time to yield results.

Writing his weekly letter to the public, Ramaphosa said that load shedding in the country is a result of a ‘perfect storm’ of various factors hitting all at once, including a lack of investment in new generating capacity, poor Eskom power plant maintenance, corruption, criminality, sabotage, rising debt and a lack of skills.

However, he acknowledged that South Africans no longer want to hear excuses.

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In an attempt to fight back the onslaught of rolling blackouts, Ramaphosa said that Eskom’s singular focus is improving plant performance – while the government is also trying to find sources of new generating capacity.

One major source of new generation is rooftop solar panels on houses and businesses, he said.

Ramaphosa said that work would soon be completed on a pricing structure that will allow customers to sell surplus electricity from rooftop solar panels into the grid.

“To incentivise greater uptake of rooftop solar, Eskom will develop rules and a pricing structure – known as a feed-in tariff – for all commercial and residential installations on its network.”

Designated local content for solar panels has been reduced from 100% to 30% to alleviate constraints.

On Sunday (22 January) Eskom chair Mpho Makwana also noted that rooftop solar was one of the various strategies the power utility was looking to leverage to help mitigate the crisis.

Makwana said that plans around the rollout of rooftop solar are expected to be detailed in the coming weeks.

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UN Climate Change News, 18 January 2023 – The uptake of renewable energy is moving faster and further than projected but radical action is still needed to accelerate the energy transition.

Speaking at the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) Assembly in Abu Dhabi last weekend, Stiell said the positive outcomes from last November’s UN Climate Change Conference COP27 give the world enormous opportunity to make progress, starting now.

“It requires the cooperation of every single country represented in this room,” said Stiell. “All Parties must come together in order to achieve the level of ambition needed to get to where we need to go, and we have a lot of work to do to get there.

Advwetisement

​There is reason for optimism when it comes to renewable energy because renewables are moving further and faster than projected. Here are just a few examples:

Renewable electricity capacity additions have been outpacing those of non-renewables since 2014.
 
The International Energy Agency’s (IEA) Renewables Outlook complements this, noting that renewables are set to account for over 90% of global electricity capacity expansion in the next five years and that renewables will become the largest source of global electricity generation by early 2025, surpassing coal.
 
In Europe alone, the IEA estimates that the continent’s renewable electricity expansion will double over the 2022-2027 period as energy security concerns add to climate ambitions.
 
Worldwide renewable energy employment reached 12.7 million last year, a jump of 700,000 new jobs in one year. Solar energy was found to be the fastest-growing sector. In 2021 it provided 4.3 million jobs, more than a third of the current global renewable workforce.

But there is also reason for frustration. As IRENA pointed out in its submission to the global stocktake, regardless of increased ambition expressed by countries at the last two COPs, current climate pledges and overall finance to support the shift to renewables remains insufficient.

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South Africans renting a home may risk losing their investment in the backup power systems they’ve installed if they fail to consider an addendum with the landlord to remove the installation upon the termination of the lease agreement.

South Africa’s power grid is under significant strain due to a combination of factors, including population growth, increased demand for electricity, poor management and ageing infrastructure.
This strain has led to frequent power outages and load shedding, which has had and continues to have a major impact on the country’s economy and the daily lives of every South African.

According to Daily Investor, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) senior researcher Monique le Roux said the South African economy lost R560 billion because of load shedding in 2022, and things are unlikely to change in the next few years.

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She added that although it is hard to predict the future, another ten years of load-shedding is a possible scenario.

As of Tuesday (10 January 2023), power utility Eskom announced that load shedding will be pushed to stage 6. The pattern of stage 4 load shedding between 05h00 and 16h00, and then stage 6 between 16h00 and 05h00 will repeat until further notice, Eskom said.

Prolonged load shedding and the prediction that it will remain a reality for South Africa long into the future has meant that many South Africans have decided to install backup power supply to their properties to mitigate the effects of having no power at home for extended periods.

Additionally, almost all major banks now offer loans to provide finance to their customers specifically for backup utilities due to their expense – whether it be generators, batteries, or renewable energy sources such as solar.

However, TPN Credit Bureau warned those renting properties to consider South Africa’s property laws before installing any backup utilities.
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South Africa’s largest solar power plant is the Solar Capital De Aar Project in the Northern Cape.

The photovoltaic (PV) facility has an installed generating capacity of 175MW, enough to provide electricity to roughly 75,000 homes per year.

It consists of more than half a million PV modules covering 473 hectares.

The project was split into two construction phases, with the first finished in August 2014 and providing 85.26MW of capacity.

The second phase added another 90MW of generating capacity about two years later.

Overall, it took 28 months to construct the entire facility at a cost of R4.8 billion.

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mybroadband.co.za/news/energy/476185-biggest-solar-plant-in-south-africa-vs-the-world.html​While its capacity is substantially larger than the numerous 50-100MW solar plants across the country, it pales in comparison to the biggest solar farms in the world.

At the time of publication, the largest solar plant globally was Bhadla Solar Park in India, with an installed capacity of 2,245MW, nearly 13 times that of Solar Capital’s De Aar plant.

The plant is built in a desert considered to be nearly uninhabitable.

Its peak daily temperatures range between 46-48°C, and it frequently gets battered by hot winds and sandstorms.

But its hot and largely cloud-free conditions make it perfect for generating solar power.

Bhadla’s construction began in March 2015, with four phases completed by March 2019.

It now comprises over 10 million solar panels and spans an area of roughly 5,700 hectares.

When the conditions are right, it can produce more power than Koeberg nuclear power station at full load or about half of Medupi’s generating capacity.

Plans are in place to expand its capacity to 3,500MW in the future.

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South Korean Automotive behemoth Hyundai is now running its head office in Bedfordview and dealerships across Gauteng on solar power in an effort to combat load shedding.

According to the group, the head office now has more than 240 solar panels on the roof, delivering 110 kW on a day with normal levels of sunshine. This set the group back a combined R14 million following their installation.

“Due to the frequency of power interruptions brought about by load shedding and the cost of running diesel-burning generators, we investigated the benefits of installing solar power,” said Stanley Anderson, sales and operations director at Hyundai Automotive SA.

After the installation, the group can change to smaller diesel generators. “The cost of diesel and running a generator was also a big consideration when we investigated the installation of the solar power systems,” Hyundai said.

Anderson added that the project also aimed to reduce the electricity bill and consumption of the company and its dealer network while making it more environmentally friendly.

The head office is now looking to install batteries to store power better.

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e are busy with a feasibility exercise to see what the most cost-efficient solution would be to install batteries in order to store power, which would considerably reduce the use of a generator,” said Anesh Parhanse, the general manager of properties at Hyundai Automotive SA.
Parhanse said that the group does not yet store power at the main office, but power is let back into the grid when there is a surplus.
All installations are grid-tied and generator-tied. When there is load shedding and not enough sunshine, the generator will kick in, Parhanse added.
“Between 10h00 and 15h00 we are off the Eskom grid 90% of the time when there is enough sunshine. On a bright sunny day with clear skies, we are off the grid completely.” 
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In some parts of South Africa’s Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal provinces, sugarcane fields stretch as far as the eye can see.

The crop is more than just a treat for those with a sweet tooth: in 2017 the country’s sugar industry had an estimated value of more than R12 billion; of this, sugarcane production alone was worth R5.1 billion.

But the sugar industry is shrinking, at least partly because many people are eating less sugar, for health reasons. How, then, might sugarcane production continue to extract value? We believe the answer lies with the crop’s waste material.

Sugarcane bagasse is the fibrous material left over after the crop has been crushed to extract its juice to make sugar.

About 54 million tonnes of sugarcane bagasse is produced annually around the world. The inadequate disposal of this bagasse leads to environmental pollution and attracts many insects when left unattended.

But there are ‘jewels’ among the piles of ash that remain once bagasse is burned.

With the right chemical and physical processes, valuable nanoparticles of silicon and silica — which are used in the construction, pharmaceutical, cosmetic and detergent industries, among others — can be generated.

Scores of chemical processes are being tested and fine-tuned to extract silica from bagasse ash, and from there synthesising it into silicon particles.

Some tests are fairly advanced but nobody has yet cracked the code to producing high grade, pure silica at levels high enough to meet industrial demands.

Our recent work took a ‘green’ approach to the extraction process. First, we confirmed what a growing body of research has shown: that sugarcane bagasse ash is a natural resource of silica which should be harnessed for industrial purposes.

And, using organic acids and bases, we showed what processes might be used for a more environmentally friendly extraction procedure.

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From Alex Lenferna - 350Africa.org

Thank you to everyone who supported our Mandela Day march to the presidency demanding an emergency renewable energy plan. Whether you took to the streets, signed the petition, or helped spread the word, we value your support and role in the movement.

One week after our march, the president announced his energy plan[1]. It had some good, some bad, and some complicated elements in it[2]. The good news is renewable energy was front and centre as the key to solving our interconnected energy and climate crisis.

Thanks to everyone who has continued pushing for a renewable energy future. Due in large part to the continued and collective efforts of our movement, polluting, harmful, and expensive energy options like new coal featured nowhere in the president’s energy plan. 

There is much that is worthy of celebration in the president’s plan, like incentivising rooftop solar, doubling renewable energy in the next bid window, and Eskom’s plans to manufacture solar and storage. There are also several  things we worry about, like the role of gas, the possible fast-tracking of powerships, and the lack of policies to encourage progressive, socially owned renewable energy. 

Some bad news is that the same minister who failed to deliver on the last emergency energy plan will be in charge of delivering on large parts of this plan, namely, Minister Mantashe and his dysfunctional Department of Mineral Resources & Energy (DMRE). We know that he will continue to push for polluting and expensive energy projects that put the profits of an elite few over people and the planet. 

So, now that the president’s plan is out, we cannot afford to become passive. There’s a lot more work to be done in ensuring a rapid and just transition to renewable energy that provides safe, clean and affordable energy for all. Now is the time to push even harder for the energy future we want. Let’s keep up the pressure until we have built an energy future that delivers on climate and energy justice!

Onwards,

Alex on behalf of the Climate Justice Coalition.

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