Cape Town based energy technology company Plentify and waste management company Witech will each receive funding to run pilot projects which could determine how they could scale up their work.

EEP Africa’s 2020 call on Clean Energy Power Green Growth received 357 applications for projects in 14 countries across Southern and Eastern Africa. These were evaluated based on concept innovation, development impact, business model and financial sustainability. Twenty six projects were identified in the 2020 call for financing.

Productive use of energy through intelligent water heating
Plentify will pilot technology that transforms household water heaters (geysers) into intelligent thermal batteries for smart, clean energy. Electric water heaters waste half the energy they consume and drive up demand at peak times when solar is not an option.

This contributes to South Africa’s erratic, polluting and costly electricity supply’s unsustainability. Plentify’s HotBots are smart devices that turn water heaters on only when needed and at optimal times for the electric grid.

​Lauri Tuomaala, EEP Africa head of portfolio and finance, said Plentify stood out as a unique and innovative combination of energy efficiency and energy storage solution: “The technology is used in a novel way, coupling electric and heating systems to provide demand flexibility for the grid.”

EEP Africa financing will enable Plentify to expand its pilot project in Cape Town and demonstrate the environmental impact and economic value of the new technology.

“The project will help prove the business case for solar PV to municipalities that may still be reluctant about renewables. A proven concept has significant scale-up potential in South Africa and regionally,” said Tuomaala.

The €299,955 funding is intended to last two years. Plentify had funding to conduct a pilot without EEP’s help, but it would have been much smaller (20% of this project’s scope). “EEP funding is enabling the pilot to be implemented at a sufficient scale to demonstrate the environmental and economic value of the technology, leading to transformative impact,” explained Tuomaala.

Plentify will now expand their pilot project transforming water heaters into intelligent batteries. They will deploy HotBots into 500 homes in the City of Cape Town. Every HotBot saves 1MWh in energy and 1 tonne in CO2e emissions per year.

“Success for this project is proving the technology and business model, setting Plentify on a path to large-scale deployment. This will be evidenced by more municipal (and non-city owned) customers and the ability to secure private asset financing. If the pilot project goes well, the company has an ambitious goal of scaling up to 300,000 units sold in the next five years,” said Tuomaala.

Waste to energy plan addressing solid waste
Witech Africa on the other hand will assess the feasibility of a modular waste-to-energy plant in Athlone industrial area of Cape Town. The proposed plant will generate 2,7MW of electricity and thermal energy from municipal solid waste, using technology developed by a Finnish company. The facility will be designed to take an integrated approach to electricity and thermal generation for municipalities and industrial off-takers.

The EEP Africa financing will support the research and studies needed to develop a bankable project. Witech will consider gasification as a comparative or supplemental technology and plans to establish a local non-profit organisation to education schoolchildren and the community about waste management.

Witech Africa’s would be the first plant in South Africa to use moving grate incineration technology to turn municipal solid waste into energy. When operational, the plant will divert more than 60,000 tonnes of waste from Cape Town landfills, significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

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This project will assess the feasibility of a modular waste-to-energy plant in the Athlone industrial area of Cape Town. The proposed plant would generate 2.7 MW of electricity and thermal energy from municipal solid waste, using an innovative technology developed by a Finnish company. The facility will be designed to apply an integrated approach to electricity and thermal energy for municipalities and industrial off-takers. The project will also consider gasification as a comparative or supplemental technology. Witech also plans to establish a local non-profit to educate schoolchildren and the community about waste management. EEP Africa financing will support the research and studies needed to develop a bankable project.

Outcome and Impact
This would be the first plant in South Africa to use moving grate incineration technology to turn municipal solid waste into energy. When operational, the plant will divert more than 60,000 tonnes of waste from Cape Town landfills, significantly reducing GHG emissions. The project has the potential to transform waste management in South Africa and provide clean energy to industrial clients and the grid, reducing the need for load shedding.

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Center for Regenerative Design and Collaboration (CRDC) announced its plastic-to-concrete invention at the recent Sustainable Brands Oceans congress in Porto.  The news was delivered by Donald Thomson, founder and CEO of CRDC, Paul Clements-Hunt of The Blended Capital Group in London and Kevin James, CEO of GCX Africa. 
​They explained how the planet could be rid from unmanaged and unrecycled plastic waste (‘tragic’ plastic) through this technology, which can turn any plastic – dirty or clean and in any form – into the very building blocks of sustainable development. The CRDC process involves efficient upcycling of massive industrial quantities of plastic waste and enriching it into a synthetic construction aggregate that is lighter in weight and more durable than conventional concrete.

This is a practical solution that, using unmanaged (‘tragic’) plastic waste, can be used in a variety of concrete products to build quality housing and civil infrastructure that can prosper over the long term.  It is tried, tested, in operation, and primed for immediate global expansion.

CRDC is working with three of the founding members of The Alliance to End Plastic Waste, (the petroleum’s industry’s organization that has established a US$1.5-billion fund to help resolve the tragic plastic problem);  CRDC is also working with one of the world’s largest brokers of recycled materials; with a significant player in the food and beverage industry; with Habitat for Humanity; with the Ocean Recovery Alliance;  with leading construction and concrete companies in various markets around the world (for example PEDREGAL in Costa Rica and Latin America); and with municipalities and governments in order to form an effective international alliance to ensure the scalable roll-out of the technology as a global solution to the plastic waste problem the planet faces.

The CRDC product is a Pre-Conditioned Resin Aggregate (PRA) that incorporates regenerated waste plastic particles combined with a standard sand-cement mixture to produce a highly resistant, durable cement or cement block.
Just one CRDC facility and plant would eliminate 11 760 tons of plastic per annum; produce 13 400 tons of PRA (pre-conditioned resin aggregate) per annum; and produce 268 800 tons of concrete containing 5% PRA per annum. 
This new aggregate (PRA) can be used in ­any building application (from quality affordable houses to infrastructure) and will turn ‘tragic’ plastic into a valuable commodity for industrial and commercial use.
The technology and the concrete aggregate products have been tested rigorously, are backed by two years of extensive case studies, and meet all stringent building application standards in the US, Africa and Latin America.
This has far-reaching benefits for the environment.  It is a circular economic solution with impeccable ESG (environment, social and governance) credentials.
CRDC’s CEO, Donald Thomson says: “At a time when the world is in outcry about ‘tragic plastic’ in our oceans, we have created not only a fool-proof solution but also a game-changer for using plastic waste in a commercially viable manner. This is a full scalable zero-waste solution for the effective recovery and re-use of plastic.

“The objective is to create a platform whereby single-use plastics may be transitioned into a supply stream for high-quality construction materials while providing a solution to two of the world´s most pressing issues:  the recovery of waste plastics from the environment and the global housing deficit.

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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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Waste2Energy (WtE) or energy-from-waste (EfW) is the process of generating energy in the form of electricity and/or heat from the primary treatment of waste.
New global technologies which has a proven growth potential lack commercial pilot plants to promote the industry on the African continent.

Major developments in Uganda now offers hope and the way forward.
​
Space Links Technologies has obtained approval from the Energy Regulatory Authority of Uganda (ERA) to conduct feasibility studies that will lead to securing licenses with the Energy Regulatory Authority (ERA) for the purpose of setting up an energy to waste plant and the sale of power to the National grid. Initial engagements with the municipal council indicate that all MSW in and around Jinja is by nature heterogonous, making it difficult and expensive to recycle efficiently without source sorting.
The waste collection solutions are under-developed or non-existent. Thus, the current option is mainly landfilling all the waste. Apart from the non-combustibles, all MSW fractions can be incinerated for energy making waste-to-energy power plant a viable option for both landfill and recycling. Space links has identified a great opportunity to work with Woima Finland oy, a reputable Waste 2 energy company to establish a solution to convert Waste to Energy in the City of Jinja. The company plans to incorporate skilled stake holders whose backgrounds will be in the areas of Waste management. Once we are fully operational it is our intention to start recycling the waste available in order to increase the calorific value for incineration, thus creating more power output. We are also considering bringing solutions to recycle used tyres to produce heavy fuel and create many more jobs.

Paul Kasango from Space Links says the key to success will be to produce clean energy. The Waste2Energy project is very exciting not only from the stand point of environmental protection but also from a commercial prospect.
A successful Waste recycle plant will contribute enormously to the health well-being of the inhabitants
of the city and its surroundings. There will be many recycling opportunities upstream that will be
generated. It is expected that the establishment of a central waste collection and management solution
will bring about a cleaner city and help the Authorities reduce costs on waste management and the
enforcement of environmental protection laws.
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Witech Africa has been instrumental in getting the project to where it is now, we value Kevin Gesseau’s
input and enormous knowhow in W2E roll-out on the Continent. A lot of work has already gone into the
project. PROHOC oy and WOIMA are the DOC and tech providers and project sponsors.
Due to the fact that Witech Africa represents Finnish technology and knowhow on the Continent, Space Links Uganda is able to proceed with a number of funding processes the Finnish Government has put in place for companies making use of Finnish technologies. We are in the process of making application to Finfund and through the EEP program put in place for project development for energy projects with a huge development and social impact mandate such as ours in Jinja.

​Energy from Waste (EfW) is one of the best available techniques for recovering residual energy from waste, even more so on the African Continent. This can include electricity, heat and transport fuels (e.g. diesel).

Power grids are failing or non-existent in the developing countries. Waste collection is a challenge and scarce foreign currency is wasted on fuel imports. Therefore, solutions supporting micro-grids and local SMEs, while improving both the state of the environment and the national balance of payments, are highly sought after.

The solution relies on a collection area of roughly ~200,000 inhabitants, while producing
• electricity
• thermal energy
• potable water
enough for a city of ~20,000 people. Naturally, the energy is also available in the form of steam (400oC / 40 bar) for e.g. industrial processes.
It is a robust and modular mediumscale power plant using 15,000 to 100,000 tons of waste annually, depending on the quality of the waste. It is designed for a 30-year lifespan in the
harshest of conditions. The design is based on 20’ and 40’ sea containers, which simultaneously act as
• easily transportable units
• secure enclosures
• installation platform for technical solutions
• protective housing on-site

The business model relies on high level of key component pre-fabrication, locally sourcing the unsophisticated materials, short construction and installation time on-site, simple maintenance and advanced automation requiring very little manpower.
Waste incineration tech is a  proven tech used in Scandinavia and Europe as a whole for the last 130 + years.
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Witech, an international company headquartered in South Africa can now assist in bringing this robust Finnish technology to communities by inviting interested parties with access to industrial, commercial, retail and or municipal solid waste (MSW) as well as companies needing additional energy for their operations to contact for possible collaboration in this field.

​WITECH is representing Finnish waste-to-energy solutions provider and circular economy front runner WOIMA.

South Africa is currently experiencing significant pressure on landfill space. Operational landfills are rapidly filling up and new landfill permits are not being issued.

In an attempt to divert waste from landfill, the government has increased landfill gate fees with plans to ban all organic waste to landfill within the next few years.  Anaerobic digestion (AD) is a potentially effective organic waste treatment method and landfill alternative which several waste producers have begun to utilise or consider.

Treatment of waste in an anaerobic digester both accelerates the decomposition process and produces useful by-products in the form of biogas and digestate. Biogas consists of approximately 50% methane and 50% carbon dioxide and can be upgraded to compressed natural gas, which is used as an LPG replacement or combusted directly in a generator to produce electricity and heat. The digestate produced is nutrient rich and can be used as a liquid fertiliser which returns nutrients to the soil and thereby closes the loop.

Less than 20 large scale AD installations exist in South Africa, of which, far fewer are currently operating as intended. This can be attributed to several factors. AD is a biologically mediated process generally occurring at low temperature and pressure. There are several operational challenges associated with biological systems which require a constant and regulated environment specific to the needs of the microbial community in order to operate optimally. Small deviations can result in huge process upsets and can take much longer to rectify.

As result of the small biogas industry in South Africa, very few companies and people have the experience necessary to operate anaerobic digesters. Additionally, many anaerobic digesters have been installed by international companies with very poor transfer of knowledge and training taking place before project handover. As a result, many companies with new biogas installations find themselves in the position where they are unequipped to operate their new digester and are unable to call on the expertise of others in South Africa. In many cases existing designs have been installed without a full investigation into the appropriateness for the specific waste stream, resulting, in a sub-optimal process.

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