The Copenhagen Accord on Climate Change

Filed Under Cleantech, Global Warming, South Africa | Tags: , , , | Leave a Comment

What does the Copenhagen Accord mean to South Africa? Well I think while everyone is enjoying their summer holiday, we will return to a 2010 that will be mixed with the excitement of the World Cup Soccer, together with the major challenge of Climate Change that the country will need to combat. Regardless of what has been achieved in Copenhagen, the effects of Climate Change will continue to have a negative impact on the economy and society of South Africa. Will our politicians and leaders of industry be part of the solution or part of the problem?

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Eskom announces fossil fuels are alive and well

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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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Congratulations South Africa

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

Being a part of the recent drive towards renewable energy implementation in South Africa, I feel proud that the decision makers put the citizens first instead of any narrow interests of one or another sector. Its a tough job to put the right policies in place, one which I don’t envy at all, yet when we look back in ten years time hopefully we will mark the implementation of this Feed in Tariff as the turning point of an exciting journey towards carbon free energy generation.

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Why is SAA Buying Coal?

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

Engineering News reports that South African Airways is publicizing a tender to purchase coal for their boilers that will heat up their hangars during the winter. This is quite absurd especially when the South African government is pushing renewable energy to replace fossil fuels wherever possible.  Solar energy has been used to heat up boilers for decades on financially viable terms.

There needs to be a more coordinated effort amongst the various departments of the South African government so that their purchasing power can be used to move towards a carbon free economy. The same edition of Engineering News reports that Climate change could halve Southern Africa’s cereal crop output. which is a direct result of coal based power generation.

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Why are Hyatt, Hilton and Others Adopting Solar Thermal?

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To all our hospitality industry readers, recently there has been plenty of discussion in the media about the efficacy of solar thermal technology for use in hotels. It seems this is taking off in a big way around the world with large and small hotel chains including the Hilton and Hyatt Groups seeing excellent financial paybacks from installed systems.

Please see the following article for more details.

http://www.greenlodgingnews.com/Content.aspx?id=3184

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