​First project in commercial housing
Once the design has been completed, the system can be planned within about ten days. The first glass
balustrades with integrated solar films went into operation in May at condominiums in Stuttgart
Möhringen. “We are pleased to demonstrate how well our balustrades perform in this project. This
proves that our technology also works excellently in commercial housing,” adds Issa.

The Development Bank of Southern Africa, (DBSA) is inviting all private sector entities and energy developers to submit proposals in response to South Africa’s Embedded Generation Investment Programme (EGIP).

EGIP seeks to provide first loss facilities and Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment funding to support the implementation of embedded generation renewable energy projects in South Africa. The projects under EGIP will be implemented by private sector entities (in their capacity as Independent Power Producers and/or off-takers) and local municipalities (acting primarily as off-takers). The underlying Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) under EGIP are not expected to be underpinned by Government Guarantees. A facility of approximately U$D200 million has been secured to implement solar photovoltaic and wind renewable energy projects in South Africa. “EGIP will crowd-in funding from various funders to kick start a new market for embedded generation in South Africa”, said Mpho Mokwele, Head: Project Finance at the DBSA.

The Call for Proposals follows a recent announcement by the President that embedded energy generation projects of up to 100MW will be exempted from applying for energy generation licenses.

The Call for Proposals opens on 4 August 2021 and will close on 31 September 2021. The link to submit proposals may be accessed here: https://www.dbsa.org/embedded-generation-investment-programme

Applications will be assessed through a competitive process, specifically targeting projects that are in advanced stages of development. The DBSA has the sole discretion to respond to multiple agency objectives in making its selection, including climate impact and gender mainstreaming potential for the project.

For more information about the EGIP, visit https://www.dbsa.org/embedded-generation-investment-programme

The Australian company LAVO has developed a hydrogen storage system for domestic solar systems. It is the world’s first integrated hybrid hydrogen battery that combines with rooftop solar to deliver sustainable, reliable, and renewable green energy to your home and business.

Developed in partnership with UNSW, Sydney, Australia, and Design + Industry, the Hydrogen Battery System from LAVO consists of an electrolysis system, hydrogen storage array, and fuel cell power system rolled into one attractive cabinet. When the electricity from the solar system on the roof is not needed, it is stored in the form of hydrogen. This then serves as fuel for the fuel cell when the solar system is not supplying electricity.

The System is about 1.68 m high, 1.20 m wide, and weighs a meaty 324 kg, making it very unlikely to be pocketed by a thief. The hydrogen is stored in a patented metal hydride sponge at a pressure of 30 bar, or 435 psi.

The storage devices for the home are more like lithium-ion batteries. These include the solar battery from the German company Sonnen, which is offered with capacities between 10 and 50 kWh, or Tesla’s house battery Powerwall, which stores 13.5 kWh.

World's first hybrid hydrogen battery powers your home for three days.
LAVO System Diagram Hydrogen Energy. Credit: LAVO
However, LAVO’s hydrogen hybrid battery delivers a continuous output of 5 kW and stores over 40kWh of electricity – enough to power the average Australian home for two days on a single charge. The system is designed to easily integrate with existing solar panels, creating a significant opportunity for LAVO to have an immediate and notable impact. There are Wi-Fi connectivity and a phone app for monitoring and control, and businesses with higher power needs can run several in parallel to form an intelligent virtual power plant.

Hydrogen is often incorrectly seen as an unsafe fuel, usually due to the 1937 Hindenburg disaster. However, the company says any leaks will disperse quickly, though, making it inherently no more dangerous than other conventional fuels such as gasoline or natural gas. This innovation has a lifespan of approximately 30 years, which is three times longer than that of lithium batteries, thanks to its reliance on hydrogen gas rather than the chemicals in a conventional battery.

According to the manufacturer, LAVO’s hydrogen storage should be ready for installation by the middle of this year. It costs AU$34,750 (US$26,900) for the first 2,500 units and will require a fully refundable deposit to secure your LAVO pre-order. In the coming year, the price is expected to drop to AU$29,450 (US$22,800).

Source ........

In the discussion around climate change, there has always been the question of what happens to the thousands of people employed by fossil fuel reliant sectors. A new study published by One Earth journal suggests that working towards keeping global temperature rises below 2 degrees Celsius could create a global jobs boom for the energy sector.

The study claims that jobs in the energy sector could grow from 18 million currently to 26 million by 2050, under its “well-below 2°C (WB2C)” scenario. Under the WB2C scenario 84% of those jobs would be associated with the renewables sector, 11% would relate to fossil fuels and 5% would be in nuclear.

The decline in fossil fuels would see jobs related to the sector fall from 12.6 million today to just 3.1 million by 2050, with about 80% of the job losses associated with fossil fuel extraction. Renewable energy jobs would surge from 4.4 million currently to 22 million by 2050, with over 85% of those gains in the solar and wind industries.

“In particular, there would be a large expansion of renewable manufacturing jobs, which could lead to competition to attract and expand solar and wind industries,” states the report.

According to the report this is an important finding “as current fossil fuel dependent countries with substantial fossil fuel extraction jobs who face job losses in sectors like coal mining or others could promote the domestic renewable energy equipment manufacturing sector to create a large number of domestic jobs.”

While the report found jobs in the solar and wind manufacturing sector would likely boom under its WB2C scenario, with jobs in the sector to total 7.7 million in 2050, it noted that China currently dominates the sector.

However, it claimed this “might” change in the future, with some countries of being vocal over self-sufficiency and promoting domestic renewable energy manufacturing.

Advert

Fossil fuel exporters could face jobs decline
A number of fossil fuel exporting nations are also likely to suffer more under the WB2C scenario, with the report finding Mexico, Australia, Canada, South Africa and sub-Saharan Africa as regions likely to see job gains experienced as current policy settings disappear with stronger climate change policies.

“Most of the current energy sector jobs in these exporting countries are in the extraction sector either in coal mining or oil and gas exploration and production,” the report notes.

“As the demand for fossil fuels falls in the WB2C scenario, these exporting countries would lose employment in their extraction sectors, which is not compensated by an increase in renewables energy jobs.”

China is also likely to lose out in net jobs terms regardless of whether climate policy remains the same or is strengthened to meet the study’s WB2C scenario, due to the loss of employment in the coal mining sector, the report suggested.

Read more.............

When it comes to domestic, grid-tied, rooftop solar photovoltaic (PV) systems in South Africa, as with so many other aspects in the country’s electricity supply industry, outdated thinking and reactionary rules are holding back the supply of electricity in misguided efforts to protect the incumbent monopolies.

Even municipal electricity distributors in South Africa considered to be progressive and forward-thinking, such as the City of Cape Town, have ridiculous, self-serving rules regarding domestic solar PV systems that feed electricity back into the grid. Other municipal and Eskom electricity distributors are no different.

NRS 098 2-1, the outdated Eskom and municipal electricity standard used as the rulebook for small-scale embedded generation (SSEG), limits the size of grid-tied, rooftop solar PV systems in residential installations.

For example, a solar PV system on a house with a 60A single-phase supply is limited to 3.68kW. Similarly, other limits apply to residential installations with 40A, 80A or 10A single or three-phase supplies.

Apparently, the 3.68kW limit was calculated on the basis that if every single house connected to a final distribution transformer had a 60A single-phase supply, and all were to install identically sized grid-tied solar PV systems, then 3.68kW would be the size per solar PV system above which voltage rise may become a problem.

Obviously, this was and still is a completely absurd and unrealistic assumption for such a calculation in the first place.

Furthermore, the NRS standard was written at a time when smaller inverters for rooftop solar PV systems did not necessarily provide voltage regulation.

These days, however, even small inverters have voltage control facilities, thus obviating any need for concerns about voltage rise.

Therefore, there is absolutely no technical need for such unrealistic restrictions on the size of domestic grid-tied, rooftop, solar PV installations on single or three-phase supplies, and grid-tied solar PV sizes three times higher could be comfortably accommodated with the right approach.
Advert

On the one hand, the use of prepayment electricity meters to facilitate revenue collection and revenue protection is being pushed by Eskom and municipal electricity distributors, particularly for lower-income domestic installations.

However, the benefits of compensation for electricity generated back into the grid from rooftop solar PV installations are specifically excluded. They are not available to domestic customers with prepayment electricity meters.

The reality is that the prepayment meters currently provided by Eskom and municipal electricity distributors in South Africa are largely outdated and anything but smart.

Eskom and municipal prepayment meters have problems accommodating even the existing inclined block tariffs off properly, let alone handle time-of-use tariffs or feed-in tariffs for grid-tied solar PV systems.

Read more.............

The Western Cape’s Municipal Energy Resilience (MER) Initiative has signed memoranda of understanding (MoUs) with all six of the candidate municipalities participating in the initiative. 

This follows a ceremonial signing with the executive mayor of Stellenbosch Alderman Gesie van Deventer, on behalf of the Stellenbosch municipality, which will be participating in the first phase of the MER Initiative in this financial year.

The Drakenstein, Mossel Bay, Overstrand, Saldanha Bay and Swartland municipalities will also participate in the initiative. 

The signing of these MoUs is a critical step in Phase 1 of the MER Initiative and follows a readiness evaluation to determine which municipalities are most equipped and meet the conditions required to take advantage of the energy regulations to develop their own power generation projects and procure power from independent power producers (IPPs), says Western Cape Finance and Economic Opportunities Minister David Maynier.

“We will now be supporting and assisting these municipalities to ensure that municipal electricity networks are prepared to undertake pioneering renewable energy projects,” he notes.

Maynier says the work will explore multiple pioneering renewable energy technologies and scales, cost options, scale of investment required, location issues, risks, municipal readiness needs, infrastructure needs, timelines to get capacity onto the grid, transaction and procurement mechanisms, and regulatory issues.    

“While we have been finalising the MoUs with these municipalities, we successfully concluded a request for information (RfI) calling on all potential private and public sector organisations, including municipalities, to provide information on renewable energy projects which will assist in defining the potential pioneering projects that can be implemented in relevant candidate municipalities in the Western Cape.  

Advert

​“Additionally, we are also collaborating with the City of Cape Town and welcome their recent announcement of an RfI for innovative funding and financing instrument solutions for their Renewable Energy Programme,” Maynier acclaims.

He says the RfI is aimed at development banks and multilateral development funds for projects that the city will own and operate, located on city-owned land and buildings (typically within the city distribution grid) and ranging in size from less than 1 MW to 100 MW per project, with the potential to explore larger-scale projects connected to State-owned power utility Eskom’s network.

“We will continue to do everything we can to support municipalities and businesses to participate in the growing the green energy sector and to become more energy resilient so that together we can create a more energy resilient future in the Western Cape,” Maynier comments. 

Source.......

The City of Cape Town is calling private and public sector financiers to submit proposals for the low-cost finance of renewable energy projects that will be owned and operated by the city.

The city hopes to have a ground-mounted solar photovoltaic (PV) plant built and operated by around 2022/23.

This is in addition to the plan to procure some of its energy from independent power producers in future, it said.

‘The programme will be made up of a number of projects ranging in size from less than 1MW to 100MW per project and all projects will be located on city-owned land and buildings, typically within the city distribution grid,” said deputy mayor Ian Neilson.

​“It will comprise a range of technologies and sizes, including both rooftop and ground-mounted solar PV systems, developed and implemented over a period of 20 years, until 2040.”

The renewable energy provided is expected to be derived predominantly from solar photovoltaics and wind generation systems accompanied by utility-scale energy storage, with the opportunity for other renewable or lower-carbon energy sources to be included.
The finance provided must also cover all costs required to connect the projects to the distribution grid.
The minimum operational life of each project is expected to be 20 years and accordingly, the tenure of the funding instrument should be in the region of 15 to 20 years.
The finance provided should cover all costs of development and construction of each power plant and can be in the form of loans/debt, grants, equity, credit guarantees, or a blend thereof.
Read more......

Advert

Italian inverter manufacturer, Enertronica Santerno S.p.A, has announced that its Board of Directors has approved an investment plan for the expansion of the manufacturing activities in South Africa. Enertronica Santerno has been actively operating in the South African market for close to ten years now.

The AIM Italia listed company says it will invest around Euro 1 million (R17 million) in South Africa, spread over three years. The investment provides for the capability of manufacturing inverters for both standard photovoltaic applications and for electricity storage systems, for a total power of almost 1 GW and maximum production capacity of more than 500 MW per year. 

“After a period of marked slowdown, the South African energy market is moving once again towards a constant growth pace over the coming few years, due to the renewed commitment of the public authorities, with investment plans dedicated to renewable energy,” the company said. 

The project will be implemented starting from a production structure established over several years of operations in the country and which has proven to be highly reliable and successful, so that the Group will be able to deliver locally assembled inverters by the end of 2021. The whole Investment will be financed through internal resources of the Group with no impacts on the level of indebtedness of the same.

Advert

The company built a production plant in 2013 for the manufacturing of supporting structures for photovoltaic panels which supplied steel works for around 400 MW of panels. Subsequently, inverter-based power stations for a total capacity of around 600 MW were locally built with a 50% local content, making Enertronica Santerno one of the leading local producers in South Africa in its own market sector. 

The purpose of the Investment is the implementation of local manufacturing of inverters for renewable energy (photovoltaic) and electrical systems with storage, in order to supply products with a local content higher than 40%, exceeding, therefore, the minimum requirements recently imposed within the REE-IPP (Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme) Bid 5 framework, where inverters are included in the list of components with a minimum required Local Content, as specified in Appendix 5A – Designated Local Content (Economic Development Obligations), ED Sub-Element 200-SR-03B.

Read more.........

The South African contract Karpowership is chasing could be a game-changer for the group, making Eskom its largest client globally. What will we pay and how much will the Turkish conglomerate pocket? AmaBhungane does the sums.

One well-publicised estimate puts the cost of the South African Karpowership contracts over 20 years at more than R200-billion. This number is simply the “evaluation tariff” the company provided when it bid for allocations under the emergency Risk Mitigation Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (RMI4P), multiplied by the absolute maximum amount of power Eskom can buy from the company in terms of the programme’s rules*.

This comes to R225.7-billion over 20 years or R11.3-billion per year.

The RMI4P rules also provide for a minimum guaranteed “take or pay” element where Eskom has to pay for a certain amount of power, irrespective of whether it actually needs it. 

This is equal to 70% of the maximum possible sales, ie, R7.9-billion per year or R158-billion over 20 years. 

Advert

This is the revenue at the level of the local subsidiary Karpowership SA which is 49%-owned by a local consortium. All of that comes from Eskom. 

These, however, are ballpark figures because the actual tariff Karpower and other bidders will charge is tied to reigning gas prices, among other conditions.

These figures represent revenue, which is a good measure of what Eskom will pay, but a bad measure of how much money Karpowership will make. 

They include fuel costs which the company simply buys and sells onward as a “pass-through”. If you remove that from the equation you get the elements that really make up Karpowership’s income. 

The main one is the capacity charge or, for simplicity’s sake, the rental cost of the powerships. 

There are also smaller items that the parent company charges the local subsidiary for, like spare parts.

Rental income and spare parts, which together make up the bulk of total revenue, all go to the international group. Smaller expenses will, however, occur in South Africa. According to documents that Karpowership submitted as part of its local bid, the local component of costs come to about 9.3% of the operating expenditure, excluding fuel.

So what is the contract worth to Karpowership? 

As part of an ongoing court case involving allegations of corruption in the RMI4P process, Karpowership has filed parts of its RMI4P bid that show the breakdown of expenses at one of its three proposed projects: Coega.

According to this document, the rent paid abroad will be roughly R35-billion, with another R6-billion paid for spare parts over the 20 years. This seems to exclude the fuel ship that will accompany the powerships. That’s an additional R11.7-billion.

Read more>>>>>>>

THE recent announcement by President Ramaphosa of the new 100 MW threshold for embedded electricity generation, up from just 1 MW, was welcome news for many companies. However, while big businesses are jumping to investigate their self-generation options, there are many others who are destined to remain in the dark.

The ability to invest in on-site power generation is a luxury afforded to mature businesses with reliable cash flow – and a lot of space. A clear example of this is the 40 MW solar plant planned for Gold Fields’ South Deep mine in Gauteng, with a R660-million price tag and spanning the area of 200 soccer fields.

“Yes, R660 million is a significant investment, but so are the benefits of operating our own solar plant. Unaffordable and unrelenting Eskom tariff increases, and unreliable supply of electricity is a major risk for all mining companies,” comments Martin Preece, EVP of Gold Fields South Africa. The solar plant will be funded from the mine’s positive cash-flows over the next two years, and will generate 22% of the average electricity consumption of the mine.

“Other mining companies have developed or are in the process of developing their own solar plants,” says Preece.

This is great news for the sustainability of the mining industry, both in terms of business and the environment. But what about the thousands of other companies and SMMEs in South Africa? They now face two challenges: 1) a lack of resources for their own self-gen project and 2) the ongoing problems with Eskom – which may just get worse as many of the utility’s blue-chip customers get off the grid.

The solar farm at South Deep will translate into a R120 million annual saving of the cost of electricity for the mine. That is R120-million less to Eskom, which is already facing dire financial constraints. Add to that, the Deep South solar plant is planned at less than half the newly announced threshold for generation capacity. A single 100 MW plant could deprive Eskom of R300-million in business.

Advert

Preece has confirmed that since the announcement, Gold Fields is now investigating upping capacity to 70 MW. Many mines are sure to follow suit, potentially generating billions of Rands worth of their own power each year. While many stakeholders have hailed the new regulations as key in alleviating grid pressure and give Eskom room to complete much-needed maintenance and construction, it could well have the opposite effect. Losing business to self-generation might worsen Eskom’s woes, and grid-reliant businesses will be caught in the crossfire.

The “good” news is: this won’t happen overnight. Preece says, “It will take years for all the planned renewable projects to be commissioned. Until then, the industry will still be solely dependent on Eskom, and the utility’s high tariffs and continued load-shedding will be a major obstacle.”

Source........