Emirates Water and Electricity Company, EWEC, has announced that 'Noor Abu Dhabi', the world's largest single solar project, with a capacity of 1,177MW, has started commercial operation.

The project will enable Abu Dhabi to increase its production of renewable energy and reduce the use of natural gas in electricity generation, helping to make energy more sustainable and efficient and reducing the emirate's carbon dioxide emissions by 1 million metric tonnes per year, the equivalent of removing 200,000 cars off the roads.

The Dh3.2 billion solar plant, located at Sweihan in Abu Dhabi, is a joint venture between the Abu Dhabi Government and a consortium of Japan's Marubeni Corp and China's Jinko Solar Holding.

Providing enough capacity to cover the demand of 90,000 people, the plant features more than 3.2 million solar panels, installed across an 8 km2 site. Beyond size, Noor Abu Dhabi broke another record at the time of bid submission attracting the world's most competitive tariff of 8.888 fils/kWh.

The achievement of Commercial Operation Date, COD, means the plant is now completed and has started full commercial operation. To reach this milestone on time, over 2,900 people were working on site during peak construction.

Mohammad Hassan Al Suwaidi, Chairman of EWEC said, "The completion of the project marks a significant milestone in the UAE's Energy Strategy 2050, launched in 2017, to increase the contribution of clean energy in the total energy mix to 50 percent by 2050 while reducing the carbon footprint of power generation by 70 percent. This is in line with the sector's transformation strategy by providing alternative sources of energy that can help us improve the sustainability of the water and electricity sector."

Othman Jumaa Al Ali, EWEC's CEO, added, "Noor Abu Dhabi will generate renewable energy and will enable us to improve the use of our natural resources. The fact that a project of such scale has been successfully completed on time and on budget highlights our commitment to ensuring sustainable energy for the future and it is a true testament of the emirate's delivery capabilities to execute world-class energy projects. Noor Abu Dhabi will further contribute to the UAE's renewable sector, exponentially increasing the existing solar capacity of Abu Dhabi, as well as adding to the continuously growing solar capacity of the UAE."

Kangping Chen, CEO of Jinko Solar, said, "It is our privilege to participate and contribute to the winning and successful execution of this significant project, which will help power the sustainable economic growth of Abu Dhabi. We are thankful to the government team for creating a world-class tender programme, their high-level of professionalism and their strong support throughout the process."

In line with the Year of Tolerance in the UAE, the project - a venture between international companies and managed and constructed by a multi-national team - signifies the multi-cultural essence of the country and its ability to nurture top talent from around the world.

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Namibia’s largest solar power plant, is soon to be officially commissioned by Alten Energías Renovables. The 45 MW installation is part of the government’s plan to reduce dependence on hydropower and, more importantly, imported electricity from neighboring South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

The plant is located in the Mariental municipality, in Namibia’s southern Hardap Region, 278 km south of the capital, Windhoek. Mariental has a hot desert climate with average annual rainfall of just 194mm.

The solar array will have a system capacity of 150 kW and will power Chobe Water Villas, a lodge complex which also has a 332 kWh battery storage system provided by Qinous to help reduce electricity consumption.

The added megawatts from this project will reduce Namibia’s dependency on energy imports during daylight hours, and is considered a small step forward to becoming more self-sufficient. The new power production plant will use PV solar technology and occupy a land area of 100 Ha.

The PV-storage system will be owned and operated by Cronimet as an independent power producer.  Cronimet’s joint venture with OLC Solar Energy, will provide operations and maintenance.

According to the Deputy President of Alten, Juan Laso, the plant will also help build on the solid commitment being made by ALTEN Energías to Sub-Saharan Africa in meeting the region’s vast energy needs. The will be the first large-scale grid PV power-generation plant to be added to NamPower’s energy supply mix, following the smaller Renewable Energy Feed In Tariff (Refit) projects.

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Anadarko Petroleum approved a $25-billion liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in Mozambique that could help transform the economy of one of the world’s poorest countries.

CEO Al Walker signed off on what he called the biggest ever foreign investment in Africa. Anadarko sees potential for Mozambique to become one of the largest LNG suppliers in the world, and the project – expected to export the fuel to countries in Asia and Europe – will play a big part. It will be funded with $11-billion of equity and $14-billion of debt.

“Over time this project will double this country’s GDP,” Walker said at the signing ceremony in Maputo with Mozambique President Filipe Nyusi.

It’s taken the American company almost a decade to green-light the development after discovering gas in Mozambican waters in 2010. The country had to draft new regulations for its nascent oil and gas industry, even as uncertain global demand for LNG slowed plans. The government expects $95-billion of revenue over 25 years from this project and others led by Exxon Mobil and Eni.

“It is the start of a new era for Mozambique,” said Darias Jonker, a London-based director at consultants Eurasia Group. The size of these projects “will bring tens of billions of dollars of investment” and revenue to the government, he said.

Developing the hydrocarbon resources is crucial for the southern African nation, which has struggled to service its debt in the past. Nyusi could use Anadarko’s planned investment in the project, called Mozambique LNG, to showcase his achievements ahead of elections in October, and hope to compensate for problems with borrowings, according to Jonker.

Mozambique LNG is at the center of a new restructuring deal the government reached with a core group of Eurobond holders last month. While investors will no longer have access to future revenue from the project, the in-principle agreement allows the administration to pay a lower interest rate until after the country’s gas production begins in 2023

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A South African wave-energy start-up is building a pioneering 1 MW pilot project, based on its patented homegrown design, which will supply clean electricity to a large-scale Hermanus abalone farm, in the Western Cape.

Mean Sea Level (MSL) is developing the first-of-its-kind project with equity investments from the Industrial Development Corporation, angel investors and aquaculture group Abagold, which produces 500 t of abalone yearly.

Construction of the R30-million pilot plant has also received grant funding secured from EEP Africa, a multidonor fund that provides early-stage financing to innovative clean-energy projects.

Abagold is a shareholder in MSL and the company’s founder, Pierre Hugo, has been central to the identification and the co-design of the wave energy converter (WEC) solution being deployed.
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The plant, which is 25% completed, is being built on land leased from Cape Nature and will neighbour the site occupied by Abagold, supplying electricity to drive its pumps and blowers. A full environmental impact assessment was, thus, required ahead of the construction.

Once proven, MSL plans to construct a larger 3.5 MW commercial wave-power plant at an adjacent sea-front site on the same property.
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Imagine a world where your travels didn't harm the environment and the fuel used in planes had a lower carbon footprint? This is the world we aspire to create.

The Waste to Wing Incubator, an 18-month initiative for 25 SMEs that will consist of interactive entrepreneur-led business workshops, mentorship, access to market, and investment readiness support for selected participants. 

The Waste to Wing project aims to prove the feasibility of a waste-based Sustainable Aviation Fuel industry in South Africa - it has been investigating the use of waste biomass as a feedstock for SAF production, which could revolutionise the aviation industry and reduce our flying carbon footprint. 

Eligibility Criteria
SMEs must be operational for more than 1 year
The business should be operational, sustainable and viable
The owner should be involved full-time in the business
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The project is funded by the EU and forms part of the Switch Africa Green Programme, which is implemented by the EU and UN Environment. 

​Apply here.....
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Bulk liquid storage operator Bidvest Tank Terminals’ (BTT’s) R1-billion mounded liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) storage facility in Richards Bay, KwaZulu-Natal, is set to house the largest tanks in the world and is expected to greatly enhance LPG supply in Southern Africa once completed, the company has indicated.
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The facility will store LPG on behalf of independent LPG specialist Petredec, which ships the fuel from the US and the Middle East. LPG is produced as a by-product in the oil refining process.

Petredec sought an import facility specifically on South Africa’s East Coast, and Richards Bay was seen as the most suitable port to handle this capacity. Being able to receive larger shipments also makes product handling more cost effective, reducing overall logistics costs.

The port is also on Petredec’s shipping route and in close proximity to the main rail and road logistics routes going inland, particularly as most of the LPG will be used in Gauteng, the Free State and the North West. This logistics infrastructure is also of high quality.

The project, currently under construction, was initiated at the end of 2017 and is slated for completion in July 2020. It is expected to increase LPG supply in South Africa by 200 000 t/y, half the country’s current consumption of about 400 000 t/y.

Replacement Energy Source
BTT and Petredec are confident that there is demand for LPG, BTT MD David Leisegang tells Engineering News.

The companies believe that the greatest demand will stem from LPG’s use as a replacement energy source, such as a substitute for wood or paraffin for heating and cooking. The use of these energy sources is still quite prevalent in South Africa, especially in informal settlements and areas where there is not any reliable access to electricity.

Leisegang emphasises that the health benefits of LPG are “considerable”, compared with the energy sources mentioned, as are its safety credentials, as “many of the fires in informal settlements are [the result of] cooking with these sources of fuel”.

LPG has been identified by the World Bank as the most environment friendly of all fossil fuels; therefore, the facility is expected to assist in providing a viable, reliable, safer and more environment- friendly energy alternative.

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Companies compelled to consider alternative power sources to ensure business continuity.

Green buildings are increasingly in demand in the face of concerns around Eskom’s ability to sustainably supply power.

At the recent African Utility Week conference, energy minister Jeff Radebe told delegates that “Eskom alone cannot meet our power capacity requirements, because we estimate that the capacity extension under the Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) will cost in excess of R1 trillion in the period up to 2030, including the new power plants plus the requisite transmission and distribution infrastructure”.

Property company Redefine recently noted that installing renewable energy interventions is an area with scope for growth, notably to alleviate some of the pressure caused by Eskom’s blackouts and tariff increases.

For the six months to February 2019, Redefine saw total solar photovoltaic (PV) capacity increase to 23.5 megawatt-peak (MWp; power output at rated laboratory conditions) across its property portfolios. The property company says green buildings remain a key development priority in line with creating a sustainable business.

Green buildings offers a multitude of benefits

“Our green buildings benefit our business, our tenants and our environment by utilising the latest technology across designs, drawing less power from the grid, reducing our carbon footprint, and optimising operational costs,” says CEO Andrew König.

Pieter Strydom, commercial asset manager at Redefine Properties, says that while Sandton has an oversupply of office space, well located prime grade green buildings remain in demand, keeping vacancy in that market segment low.

“While traffic remains the key detractor in the Sandton node, new builds offer amenities, accessibility to transport and efficient green-building designs,” he notes.

Global move towards renewable solutions

Oil giant Total launched a programme two years ago to equip about 5 000 of its service stations globally with solar power by 2021.

Around 53 Total service stations in South Africa currently run on solar energy.

Pierre-Yves Sachet, chief executive of Total South Africa, says as the global population and its energy requirements continue to grow, the need for responsible energy consumption becomes more dire. The fourth-largest gas and oil company in the world, Total operates three solar farms in the Karoo and has plans to expand its solar production footprint in South Africa.

Microgrid solution

Marco Rahner, Siemens country manager for Kenya and the East Africa hub, says the company launched a microgrid solution last year that won an award for the Digital Solution of the Year. “Distributed energy systems (DES) technologies offer building owners and energy consumers opportunities to reduce cost, improve reliability and secure additional revenue,” he says. “Siemens is able to offer an end-to-end solution looking at making buildings greener, while also assessing the clients’ power requirements and installing a microgrid solution.”

Rahner explains that the Siemens solution includes a microgrid controller that stabilises the grid in the event of an outage and allows for cost-optimised energy consumption.
Siemens recently signed up to develop an expandable microgrid solution for an industrial and business park in Ghana called WestPark. As part of the agreement, Siemens will develop a 250 kilowatt (kW) microgrid that controls the energy generation and throughput for the initial phase of buildings to be constructed at WestPark.

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The National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) has finally released a consultation paper for an updated Licensing Exemption and Registration Notice for certain categories of small-scale embedded generators (SSEGs), which was submitted to the regulator for its concurrence by Energy Minister Jeff Radebe late last year.

Stakeholders and members of the public have been invited to comment on the draft amendment to the Electricity Regulation Act, with a deadline of May 24 set for submissions.

The notice seeks to replace the November 2017 Licensing Exemption and Registration Notice, which is widely accepted to be “flawed” and which has also caused significant market uncertainty.

The new notice exempts various categories of SSEG plant under 1 MW from the requirement to apply for and hold a licence under the Act, including a facility that supplies electricity to a customer who is an end-use customer.
One operated to supply an end-use customer, or related customers by wheeling.
And the operation of a generation facility for demonstration purposes only, whether or not the facility is connected to a transmission or distribution network.

The notice also covers existing generation facilities, including those that filed for registration with the regulator within six months of commencement of the registration process by the regulator.

It also covers the trading of electricity by a reseller.

Separately, Nersa’s electricity subcommittee approved, on May 13, registration applications for 16 SSEGs and one cogenerator in line with the 2017 Licensing Exemption and Registration Notice, which remains in force until the new notice is promulgated. 

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The Radisson Blu Hotel in Granger Bay, Cape Town, has recently disconnected from the drinking water network. It will now source its supplies from its own desalination plant.Radisson Blu, a leading American luxury hotel brand, has an establishment in Granger Bay, a district of Cape Town in South Africa. The water used in this hotel has so far been provided by the municipality. In recent days, however, Radisson Blu has disconnected itself from the city’s drinking water network, since it now has its own seawater desalination system.

“We dug a well under the hotel to access the water source. This allows us to pump enough water for our reverse osmosis plant to keep our hotel’s fresh water tank full at all times,” says Gary Bowers, the engineer who designed the desalination unit. It is capable of supplying 7 m3 of fresh water per hour from a 100 m deep borehole.

In reality, the Radisson Blu Hotel in Granger Bay has been forced to have its own drinking water source, because despite some stabilisation in the drinking water supply in Cape Town, restrictions on the use of the precious liquid remain in place. These decisions were made during the 2018 dry season when water stopped flowing through the taps for several weeks.

The use of a desalination plant means that we can no longer operate from municipal water supplies. In this way, we are able to play our role in saving water during this period of scarcity. Our customers can be assured that they do not put pressure on the local water supply when they stay with us,” says Clinton Thom, General Manager of Radisson Blu in Granger Bay.

The hotel is not the only structure to have disconnected from the drinking water distribution network in Cape Town. In August 2018, Lucky Star, a producer of canned fish, commissioned two seawater desalination plants in Laaiplek and Amawandle Pelagic on the west coast of South Africa. The treated water is intended for fish canning plants. Both plants were built by the South African company ImproChem in partnership with Suez Water Technologies & Solutions, a subsidiary of the French group Suez. They both provide 624 m3 of fresh water per day.

Source   Jean Marie Takouleu