Earthlife Africa publishes “Sustainable Energy Briefing 17: Renewable Energy Costs”

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

Here’s a very good paper on the opportunity for renewable energy in South Africa “Sustainable Energy Briefing 17″ exploring the costs of renewable energy vis-a-vis fossil fuel. As Earthlife summarizes:

“With Eskom negotiating with the World Bank for a US$5 billion dollar loan to finance a part of its planned R1 trillion expansion plan, there is an urgent need to assess Eskom’s current build plan in the sober light of financial long-term health. Eskom’s current plans are for increased investment in coal-fired power stations and nuclear plants. These plants have life expectancies of between 40-60 years.

The attached Sustainable Energy Briefing will summarise recent research into the costs of renewable energy versus fossil fuel energy. This research indicates that the cost of building renewable energy is cheaper (or at par) with that of fossil fuels and without the consideration of externalised costs.

In addition, the unit cost of electricity will be examined. In the next 15 years or less, the unit cost of renewable energy will be less than that of conventional energy. This statement (perhaps one of the most important statements in the energy sector today) has the logical consequence that Eskom’s continued reliance on coal will result in higher than necessary energy prices. Once again, these calculations do not include externalised costs such as carbon emissions, poor air quality, waste storage, and acid rain.

Finally, this issue will outline the faulty economics of nuclear power. Simply put, nuclear power may be the altar upon which this country bankrupts itself.”

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South Africa’s Renewable Energy Feed-in Tariff

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

The National Electricity Regulator of South Africa (NERSA) just published two key pieces of new proposed regulations:

1 Power Conservation Program (PCP)

2. Renewable Energy Feed-in Tariff (REFIT)

The PCP proposal has the potential to revolutionize the energy efficiency/renewable energy sector in South Africa by requiring South Africa’s biggest electricity consumers to reduce their use of electricity by 10% or face very high rates. Compared to these rates, renewable energy or energy efficiency steps become highly profitable based on avoided penalties.

The feed in tariff on the other hand is not helpful as a promoter of  renewable energy in South Africa since the prices being proposed do not come near to guaranteeing a suitable return on investment. In addition we believe that a 15 year period is too short. Investor are going to want to see at least 20 years guaranteed rate. We are still early in the process so there is still time to influence NERSA to adopt a more realistic rate. Hopefully the final document will reflect a more realistic policy.

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Emerging Nations Seek G8 Help for Clean Technology

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

One of the major questions that remain in the effort to reduce the effects of global warming is “who pays to solve the problem?” Based on the outcome of the weekends’ G8 talks in Kobe Japan on the global environmental crisis (see Reuters article
“G8 climate talks seek momentum on emission cuts“), it seems that there are plenty of declarations but very few practical solutions. One of the interesting themes that came out of the talks was the need to fund technology development. I wonder if this is the best use of public money since there are so many products already available that are not being implemented due to a lack of awareness, government incentives and innovative financial programs such as pay-per save or leasing equipment. Shouldn’t we be encouraging the deployment of existing technologies rather than spending millions in research projects that have only a small chance of reaching the market?

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Latest Investment Thesis To Combat Climate Change

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Recently the World Resources Institute came out with a study called “Scaling Up” summarizing the latest thoughts on how policy, investment and technology community should work together to combat climate change. Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan provided financial support and assistance. Happy reading!

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Executive Level Videos on CSR

Filed Under Global Warming | Tags: none | 1 Comment

Its not easy to convince a very busy corporate CEO or C level executive about the benefits of CSR. There are many textual heavy documents about the benefits of CSR however lately we have seen multi media take over. Here are two short movies “AHEAD OF THE CURVE: Business Responds to Climate Change” and “Energy Independence and Climate Protection: A Business Perspective” that do an excellent job to convince business executives about the advantages of combating global warming.

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