This third article from the interview by Chris Yelland with André de Ruyter on 15 April 2020 covers Eskom’s response to climate change and the need for a just energy transition in South Africa towards a greener future.
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See here for the first and the second articles

With Eskom being the country’s largest emitter of CO2 through the burning of coal for power generation, what is Eskom doing to reduce its carbon footprint, what are the key ingredients for unlocking a just energy transition in South Africa, and what role should Eskom be playing in this transition?

I must stress that Eskom fully recognises the importance of climate change and the fact that it has a negative impact, not only on the world, but in particular on South Africa as well.

South Africa is a signatory to the Paris Agreement and, therefore, as a major emitter of greenhouse gasses, we need to contribute to global efforts to address climate change. But that implies there is going to be a very wrenching adjustment from an economy built on cheap coal and cheap energy to an economy that is far more resilient and far less reliant on carbon.

The structural underpinnings of our economy have not changed yet and we are not very well prepared for the energy transition that is underway globally. That does not mean we can resist the energy transition. I think we need to accelerate very quickly on this long road in order to catch up and take advantage of the latest developments in technology.

If you look at the cost curves for renewable energy, compared to those for fossil-based energy, it is clear the technology developments and affordability of renewable energy have been such that you cannot afford to ignore this. It is beyond any doubt that wind and solar energy will play a key role in our energy portfolio and mix going forward. But that does not mean we will be able to back out of coal overnight. 

This is going to be a long passage as we wind down our reliance on coal and, unfortunately, I think we will be a major coal consumer and hence a major emitter of greenhouse gasses and associated pollutants for some time.

We are now on the verge of retiring some of our older coal-fired power stations. This affords us the opportunity to consider repurposing them to natural gas and to use the vacant land around those power stations, where we can rehabilitate open-cast mines for solar or wind power generation.

These properties are now owned by Eskom to use and you may be aware that Eskom recently issued a request for expressions of interest and proposals for the repurposing of decommissioned coal-fired power stations, with a closing date of 10 June 2020.

Some may see old coal-fired power stations that have reached the end of their economic life, and are heavy emitters of carbon and also other pollutants, as a liability. We see these as potential assets and exciting opportunities that can be used to create a just transition.

These opportunities provide a future for communities that have helped develop this country and allowed us to benefit from mining and using coal for low-cost electricity generation for the last 60 years. We cannot just leave them in the lurch, leaving ghost towns and communities behind as festering political, social and economic wounds.

So, the call for expressions of interest and proposals on our website is an indication of the seriousness with which we take this repurposing. We believe that, if we do this right, we can also enable solutions to the significant decommissioning costs we would have to incur.

By extending the life of these power stations we can enable a just social transition and a just energy transition. At the same time, this will allow some of the private entities and communities that have expressed an interest in investing in these repurposed power stations to participate with us in public-private partnerships (PPPs).

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THE first phase of a 258 MW solar power complex has been completed in Upington. The facility, known as Sirius, has completed an 86 MW installation.
The project is part of a host of similar initiatives given the green light by the government to support the struggling power supply across the country.

Scatec Solar and its partners have announced that this connection is expected to produce 217 GWh and will lead to the abatement of more than 180 000 tons of CO2 emissions annually.

“We are pleased to reach another milestone with the grid connection of our fourth solar power plant in South Africa, with a combined capacity of 276 MW. South Africa continues to be a very important market for Scatec Solar, and we are developing several interesting project opportunities both within the utility-scale segment as well as our container-based solar solution”, says Raymond Carlsen, CEO of Scatec Solar.

The company is an independent power producer that has a total of 1.9 GW of solar power across four continents.

Completion of the remaining 172 MW of the project is expected in the upcoming months, after being awarded the project in 2015.

According to MyBroadband, Sirius is one of 27 renewable energy independent power producer (IPP) projects which aim to add 2 300 MW to the Eskom grid and help deal with the national electricity crisis.

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A R1.2-billion solar farm project has been approved by the National Treasury, Kannaland municipal manager Reynold Stevens has confirmed.

Stevens announced the project during an oversight visit to the Garden Route district municipality on Wednesday, adding that it would be a public-private partnership between Kannaland Municipality and InnovSure to provide an alternative source of green energy to the municipality.

”This is a fantastic initiative as this investment will create job opportunities and the company will further invest R42 million per annum in the Kannaland Municipality for critical infrastructure projects and further assist the Municipality with smart technology,” said DA MPP Deidre Baartman.

“Government cannot tackle the country’s energy crisis on its own,” Baartman said.

“It is vital that we break down the national government’s monopoly on energy generation and provision, and bring in the private sector to diversify this industry as a matter of urgency.”

“The Kannaland solar farm is a prime example of this.”

Combatting load-shedding
During off-peak periods, the solar farm will also be able to draw energy from Eskom and store it for release later.

This power can be used to supplement shortages during peak hours and sent to nearby municipalities such as Mossel Bay.

“I will be monitoring this development closely to ensure that the Western Cape attains energy independence from Eskom to grow our provincial economy and create much needed jobs,” Baartman said.

The DA said it remains committed to cutting red tape and using innovation to grow its provincial economy and create jobs.

By Celine Paton, Senior Financial Analyst, at the Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore (SERIS),
National University of Singapore (NUS)
Before discussing the potential of floating solar to the African continent, the advantages this
technology can bring and its current level of maturity, it is important to first set the stage on a global
scale and understand since when we are speaking about “floating solar” as an additional solution to
land-based (including rooftop) solar PV systems.
Whilst the exact debut of floating solar worldwide remains debatable, the advancement and
deployment of the technology emerged in Asia, particularly in Japan and South Korea, from 2013
onwards. Although systems remained at first relatively small, commercial projects in the 1–3 MWp
range started emerging between 2013 and 2015, often built on irrigation reservoirs. Land scarcity,
which translated into high land acquisition costs and difficulty in obtaining land rights (or in converting
land earmarked for other purposes such as agriculture), pushed these two countries to find alternate
solutions to land-based solar PV projects, which benefited at the time from preferential feed-in tariffs
(FiTs).
After a few years, China rapidly came into the picture with significantly larger (around 8 MWp) floating
solar PV (FPV) systems, which started operating in 2015. Meanwhile pilots and small-scale projects
also emerged in Europe and elsewhere with various entrepreneurial companies launching innovative
designs, competing for higher energy output, easier maintenance, and costs reduction while keeping
quality, transportability and modularity as high as possible. In 2016, a 20 MWp floating solar plant was
built in China, the first large-scale project of many more to come, built on a coal mining subsidence
area, and tendered by the government under the Top Runner programme. Built on flooded coal mines,
these projects allowed reviving depleted areas and retraining/upskilling local communities, which
were previously largely dependent upon the coal mining industry. Other landmark floating solar
projects in 2016 were the 6.3 MWp Queen Elizabeth II and 2.9 MWp Godley systems, built on water
treatment reservoirs in the United Kingdom. From 2017 onwards, projects became larger, to even
reaching the record level of 150 MWp in China (also built on coal mining subsidence areas in the Anhui
and Shandong provinces), the two world’s largest floating solar projects completed to date. 

As shown in Figure 1 below, the last three years witnessed the global floating solar installed capacity
gaining significant momentum, mainly due to the advent of large projects in China. Whilst China still
holds the record in terms of project size, other countries are following suit and planning to build
sizeable floating solar projects, some even in the multiple hundreds of MW-scale, also making them
better candidate for non-recourse project financing. Just to name a few, South Korea is planning more
than 2 GWp of floating solar projects (to be built in various phases) at the Saemangeum Seawall dyke
on the coast of the Yellow Sea. 

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The heads of South Africa’s wind and solar industry bodies urged Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe on Tuesday to publish, without delay, the Ministerial determinations required to unlock the procurement of much-needed electricity capacity in line with the Integrated Resource Plan (IRP 2019), promulgated in October.

Addressing members of the National Press Club in Pretoria, South African Wind Energy Association (SAWEA) CEO Ntombifuthi Ntuli and South African Photovoltaic Industry Association (SAPVIA) chairperson Wido Schnabel reported that their members had projects that could be implemented on an accelerated basis and in line with the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy’s (DMRE’s) recent call for proposals that could be grid-connected in the “shortest time and at the least possible cost”.

The call was made in a request for information (RFI), the deadline for which is January 31, for supply and demand options to close what is at least a 3 000 MW capacity gap, but which a recent Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) report calculates could be as large as 8 000 MW. The CSIR also warns that the country’s energy shortfall, which was above 1 350 GWh in 2019 (the country’s worst-ever load-shedding year), could grow to nearly 2 000 GWh this year and peak at about 4 600 GWh in 2022.

A full month as been allocated for the evaluation of the RFI responses, after which an emergency procurement process is expected to be initiated.

SAWEA and SAPVIA believe that the RFI process should not hold back the implementation of the IRP 2019, however, and that the fifth bidding round of the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP) should be launched in parallel, given both the crisis and that previous bidding rounds have typically required between 18 and 24 months to complete.

Lead times could be compressed in the next bidding round, owing to the fact that some 90 projects had already been identified in 2015 under the ironically named ‘expedited round’ – that round eventually expired after years of delay, precipitated by Eskom’s refusals to enter into new power purchase agreements (PPAs) with independent power producers (IPPs).

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Lighting manufacturer BEKA Schréder’s locally designed and manufactured solar street lights for outdoor residential and public applications provide a full customisable option to suit all off-grid solar lighting requirements.

BEKA Schréder marketing manager Grant Combrink says the BEKA Solar, combined with the Ziya luminaire, provides a reliable lighting solution with a high Ingress Protection (IP) level 65 that withstands high ambient temperatures and vandalism (IK10).

The Ziya luminaire range is a sustainable off-grid performer with a superior lumen or watt ratio.

Combrink notes that the photovoltaic process is optimised by efficient polycrystalline solar module technology to maximise solar energy.

“This, in turn, offers the best energy storage options and autonomy available on the market with our range of battery options, namely lead, lithium and the new SuperCapacitor. This SuperCapacitor removes the depth of discharge issues and offers extended life and discharge cycles,” he says.

Combrink explains that controlling the whole system and using the solar energy by programming the Maximum Power Point Tracking charge controllers protects and optimises the system from any internal and external factors, such as thermal environmental changes, when charging the batteries.

The BEKA Solar offers key advantages such as it being designed to operate reliably at a high light output over a 12- to 14-hour period.

It also has sufficient autonomy to cater for up to four continuous overcast or rainy days to continue its reliable night operation.

It has integrated solar components, it is theft and vandal resistant and specifically engineered for all geographical locations in Africa.

Lastly, various battery technologies are available to meet specific customer requirements.

The BEKA Solar offers a renewable lighting solution to cover a client’s geographical and application needs with extended lifetime and optimisation, he concludes.

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Energy efficiency is essential no matter what your power source but even more so if you have an off-grid solar system. You must consider all aspects of the installation from its setup to real-time use. Many things are common sense, such as lowering your thermostat at night. Others aren’t as obvious but can drain your pocketbook if you’re not careful.

Your system will include four components: solar or PV panels, charge controller, a battery bank, and an inverter. Other parts will vary based on the design of your setup and energy needs. Let’s do a deep dive into an off-grid solar system and how you can use it wisely.

This type of setup requires planning if you want to go off the grid. Installing solar panels is only the first step. You also must safeguard your system from things like reverse currents to keep the juice flowing to your home.

They say that those who fail to plan, plan to fail. Nothing could be truer when discussing an off-grid solar system

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Petrochemicals company Total on Monday inaugurated its 1000th solarised service station, based at the Total Palmeraie retail outlet, in Marrakech, Morocco.

The Palmeraie service station has 134 m2 of photovoltaic panels and will produce 45 MWh/y of power and reduce the retail outlet’s carbon emissions by 30 t/y.

This forms part of the company’s goal to solarise 5 000 of its service stations in 57 countries. It plans to accelerate work in the coming month to ensure it is able to implement solar power at about 1 000 service stations a year.

More than a third of the Total retail network stations worldwide will be equipped with high-efficiency SunPower solar panels at the end of the programme.

Through also solarising production sites and office buildings, the number of projects adds up to more than 200 MW at peak, equivalent to the total electricity demand of a city of 200 000 people, Total said in a statement on Monday.

Total marketing and services president Momar Nguer commented that the service stations that were equipped with solar panels were more independent of the grid and showcased the company’s knowledge and expertise in renewable energies.
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Consistent with Total’s ambition to become a responsible energy major, the programme will reduce the company’s retail network’s carbon emissions by more than 50 000 t/y.

“The milestone achievement reflects Total’s commitment to using solar power at our sites and our ability to support our industrial and commercial customers with cleaner, more affordable and safer electricity,” Total renewables VP Julien Pouget added. 

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South Africa’s government, energy regulator and Eskom have often been criticised for obstructing the introduction of distributed, small-scale embedded generation (SSEG) which would help businesses to cut costs and ensure the stability of their power supply during load shedding.

But in fact, there are significant and far-sighted tax breaks which have been put in place by National Treasury to encourage and incentivise business owners to install their own generation in the form of grid-tied, rooftop or ground-mounted solar PV systems on buildings, parking lots, warehouses, factories, and farms.

Accelerated depreciation allowances
From 1 January 2016, a little-known amendment to Section 12B of the Income Tax Act (Act 58 of 1996) allows for depreciation in the year of commissioning of the full (100%) cost of a grid-tied solar PV system of less than 1 MW used for electricity generation by a business in the course of its operations.

The capital depreciation allowances for solar PV systems greater than 1 MW remained unchanged in the January 2016 amendment to the legislation, which continues to allow full depreciation over three years. This permits depreciation of 50% of the capital cost in the year of commissioning, 30% in the subsequent year, and 20% in the third year.

The accelerated depreciation allowance for solar PV systems applies whether they are installed for the business by contractors or developers, or paid for by the business in a credit sale agreement (as defined in Section 1 of the Value-Added Tax Act) – either upfront in a single payment or in multiple payments over an extended period.

The cost of the solar PV system allowed for accelerated depreciation includes its full direct capital cost, including design and engineering, project planning, delivery, foundations and supporting structures, solar PV panels, AC inverters, DC combiner boxes, racking, cables and wiring, and installation. Finance costs are excluded.

This allowance was confirmed in a binding private ruling by SARS dated 11 October 2018 (BPR 311) in respect of an application by a private company in South Africa to clarify the deductibility of the capital expenditure incurred to install solar PV systems at a number of sites owned and leased by the applicant. The systems were being installed to reduce the company’s electricity costs.

The improved business case
Whether paid for upfront after commissioning, or in multiple payments over an extended period, the benefits of this tax incentive to business owners, particularly for solar PV systems of less than 1 MW, are significant.

Where the company tax rate is 28% and payment is upfront, a 100% tax-deductible depreciation allowance in the year of installation and commissioning will result in a 28% nett discount on the purchase price of the system at the end of the tax year.

This significantly affects and reduces the payback period of a solar PV project of less than 1 MW.

Better still, when paying for the same solar PV system on a credit sale agreement through multiple payments over an extended period, the transaction can be cash-flow positive for the business over the lifetime of the solar PV plant in all but the first months to the end of the tax year during which commissioning takes place.

With these significant tax incentives, and the rapidly rising price of grid electricity, the business case for installation of grid-tied, rooftop and ground-mounted solar PV is fast becoming a no-brainer.

Shout out from the rooftops
What is most surprising, however, is how few business-owners and companies are aware of these tax breaks, which can make such a positive impact on their cashflow and bottom line.

This lack of awareness is perhaps a result of the difficulties faced in accessing relevant information on the subject from SARS itself.

For example, efforts to simply download or view the up-to-date amended Section 12B of the Income Tax Act from the SARS website and the public internet proved fruitless.

Similarly, no response or even acknowledgement of receipt was received to a query sent to the SARS media desk at sarsmedia@sars.gov.za

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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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