Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale Support Green Building Practices

Filed Under Human Settlements, South Africa | Tags: , , , | 1 Comment

According to Georgia Institute of Technology School of Civil and Environmental Engineering professor and visiting research and innovation chair at Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) Mulalo Doyoyo  “We have created Retecza to build auto-nomous and sustainable villages for people, focusing on next-generation energy supply, green building and construction, as well as next-generation transportation and technology concept centres,” Doyoyo concludes. In the context of Minister Sexwale’s new Human Settlements policy, this is a key component for providing affordable housing to the masses throughout South Africa.

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Trevor Manuel Supports Solar Water Heater Industry Development

Filed Under South Africa | Tags: none | 1 Comment

“Speaking at the release of the Medium Term Strategic Framework (MTSF), Minister in The Presidency responsible for planning Trevor Manuel indicated that it was becoming urgent for new projects to be unearthed, particularly as the tournament-related projects were nearing completion”. As reported by Creamer Media July 14th 2009, “He was particularly keen to stimulate the creation of an industrial base able to produce and install sustainable energy technologies, such as solar water heaters, at new human settlements, as well as retrofits for existing houses.

He lamented the fact that the solar water heater opportunity had not yet been fully grasped by industry. “I think the way in which we bring industrial policy together with those opportunities . . . can ensure that we not only don’t import, but we also ensure sustainable resource utilisation,” Manuel concluded”. It seems that on the political level there is a huge amount of support for the industry to play a major role in helping to improve service delivery for the South African government.

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Solar Water Heaters: The Virtual Power Stations

Filed Under Cleantech, Infrastructure | Tags: , , , , , | Leave a Comment

Eskom has been racking its brains to come up with simple, economical solutions to its current crisis. One of these solutions it, believes is a national solar water heating program that will reduce peak demand on its currently strained electricity grid by 5,000 MW with a total investment of R70billion, R30bn less than a coal fired base load power station of the same size.

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NERSA Approves 31% price increase

Filed Under Cleantech, South Africa | Tags: none | Leave a Comment

With NERSA’s recent approval of another 31% price increase, South African consumers of electricity are starting to feel the pain of rising electricity prices. Wheras six months ago, people were skeptical as to whether there really was an energy crisis in South Africa, today I don’t even have to open my mouth before prospective clients start explaining to me how painful it is to see their electricity bills go through the roof. Unfortunately folks, this is just the beginning. As discussed before on this blog, you can expect a tripling of pricese within a few years. And if politically there is a strong backlash against this trend, the alternative is more blackouts. Which one would you prefer?

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Eskom announces fossil fuels are alive and well

Filed Under Cleantech, Global Warming | Tags: none | Leave a Comment

Though it seems counter intuitive, Eskom announced today that its massive build up of coal fired power stations is going ahead as planned. This seems quite odd when the South African government has announced countless times its intention to introduce new independent power generators into the market so that upto 30% of power generated is powered by non Eskom producers. While Eskom is building power plants at a rapid pace, to date the IPP (independent power producers) program promised by the government has yet to get off the ground. What makes today’s announcement by Eskom’s Brian Dames to be even more confusing is that in the same statement it was announced that the real cost of the 4,800 MW Medupi coal fired base load power station will now cost R120 billion instead of the originally projected R78 billion. This means the capital cost of a Megawatt will now cost R25 million per MW.  This is only half of the capital investment required to install a concentrated solar thermal power plant today (see: An Overview of CSP in Europe and MENA) while CSTP has no fuel costs andarguably a longer life expectancy.  If one includes the fuel costs within only a few years of operationing a coal fired plant, the costs will become prohibitive when compared to CSTP.  Any comments out there?

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Electricity prices in South Africa could increase more than threefold over the next three years

Filed Under Global Warming, Infrastructure, South Africa | Tags: none | Leave a Comment

According to Anton Eberhard, Professor of Management, restructuring and regulation of network/infrastructure industries at the Graduate School of Business, University of Cape Town, “Prices could increase more than threefold over the next three years”. The article titled “South Africa: Price Hikes Inevitable If We Want to Keep the Lights on” published in March 2009, is confirmation that South African consumers and business have been paying almost nothing for electricity for decades. The economic impact of a tripling of electric prices will be significant and in some cases devistating. In such an environment, it is inevitable that renewable energy solutions will become financially viable. The question is will South Africans adopt these technologies in time to avoid the devistation or will they wait until the last minute and possibley miss the boat?

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