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Friday, 30 July

Dear <<First Name>>

Cape Town has announced plans to develop its own power plants to reduce its reliance on Eskom. The city’s Executive Director, Kadri Nassiep, is pursuing more than 450 MW of power generation from clean energy sources and intends to secure financing for the construction of up to 150 MW worth of privately-owned plants in the city.

The aim of this move is to gain autonomy over the supply and cost of power, as well as to combat the outages being experienced widely across the country. Cape Town is following in the - arguably inevitable-  footsteps of other municipalities, such as Ethekwini issuing requests earlier in the month for the provision of 400MW of power, Western Cape signing six MoUs to ‘free residents from Eskom's monopoly’ and Johannesburg releasing its plan to solicit proposals for the construction of several solar and gas-fired plants in September.  

This trend is no surprise in light of the recent analysis by Netwerk24 which shows that Eskom’s safety margin dropped to only 2.4% approximately a week ago, falling astonishingly short of the global standard of 15%. Following which, stage 2 load shedding was unsurprisingly actioned last Thursday in Cape Town to mitigate risk of outages.

The upside is that regions that manage to install their own reliable and cheap renewable energy generation should reap an economic dividend and jobs bonus as their businesses continue to operate and grow during national shortages. This is just one of the benefits of distributed systems that utilise a more innovative and local power mix, but achieving this will need considered cooperation between the public and private sectors, and between national and municipal governments and SOEs.

Cheers

Geoff 

Managing Director, Camco Clean Energy


Kenya and the UK announce strengthened links between London and Nairobi by launching a GBP132 million investment package which aims to create jobs and unlock new opportunities.

West Africa

Burkina Faso: Two million people to gain clean energy access (ESI Africa
- An innovative joint venture between Bboxx and Geocoton will provide energy access in the country, which currently has an electrification rate of just 18%.

Côte d'Ivoire: Investment secured for hydroelectric project (Energy Mix Report
- The country has gained USD34 million from the Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund, which will go towards the construction of a 44 MW hydro plant.

East Africa

Kenya: UK to invest in sustainable projects (Energy Mix Report
- Dominic Raab has announced a new investment of GBP132 million to support building new green affordable homes, connecting households to renewable energy and boosting manufacturing in Kenya.

Madagascar: Rio Tinto to power mine with renewable energy (ESI Africa)
- The company has signed a PPA to power their QIT Madagascar Minerals ilmenite mine using a combination of solar and wind energy.

Uganda: Kabale solar lights prove inefficient (Energy Mix Report)
- Uganda National Roads Authority has replaced the town’s solar lighting systems with hydro-electric powered ones because the solar resource was insufficient.

Zambia: Feasibility study indicates a capacity of up to 19 MWe for geothermal (Think GeoEnergy)
- Kalahari GeoEnergy has estimated the capacity of the Bweengwa River Geothermal Resource Area to be 5-7 MWe, with up to 12 MWe additional capacity in the surrounding area.

Zambia: Kafue Gorge Lower Hydropower Station commissioned (Construction Review)
- The USD2 billion plant is expected to increase the country’s electricity supply by 38% - enough to meet demand for at least the next 5 years.
 

Southern Africa

Botswana: Sturdee Energy signs two PPAs (Engineering News)
 - The IPP has entered into two agreements with the Botswana Power Corporation for clean energy projects.

South Africa: South African Photovoltaic Industry Association (SAPVIA) calls for clarity (Engineering News)
- SAPVIA demands transparency from the Department of Trade, Industry and and Competition regarding its approach to localisation, specifically with regard to the country’s solar PV sector.

South Africa: Oyster Bay farm starts commercial operations (Afrik 21)
- Enel Green Power has completed construction of the 140 MWp wind facility that supplies electricity to Eskom.

South Africa: Key points remain unaddressed following threshold increase for private generation (ESI Africa)
- There has been much discussion on the recent private electricity generation threshold rising tenfold to 100 MW, yet the quality of energy produced and impact on the National Control Centre have not been addressed.

South Africa: Cape Town to develop power plants to reduce grid dependence (Construction Review)
- The move is largely due to decades of intermittent power outages because Eskom is unable to meet domestic demand.

Zimbabwe: Zimplats plans solar power plants (Engineering News)
- The Impala Platinum Holdings Zimbabwe unit intends to construct two plants with a capacity of 185 MW.

Zimbabwe: Old Mutual Life Assurance Company Zimbabwe to build solar plant (Afrik 21)
- The Old Mutual subsidiary will install a 648 kWp solar PV plant at its headquarters in Harare.

Africa - general

Energy Access: Adopting a 1.5°  pathway could accelerate universal energy access (Engineering News)
- Africa has a narrow window of opportunity to attract the investment required to accelerate the clean energy transition.

Rest of the World

Investment: World’s first clean-hydrogen investment fund could face challenges (Recharge News)
- After an IPO stumble, HydrogenOne Capital Growth only hit its minimum raise of GBP100 million in its initial public offering.

Jobs: Achieving climate targets could generate millions of jobs (Clean Technica)
- Analysis recently published in the ‘One Earth’ journal claims that meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement could create 8 million jobs by 2050.

Tidal: ‘World’s most powerful turbine’ starts to contribute to the grid (CNBC)
- The 2 MW turbine, which weighs 680 metric tons, is located off the Scottish coast and has started grid-connected power generation.

UK: Country is studying use of overhead wires to power long-haul trucks (CNBC)
- The UK Department of Transport has commissioned a consortium to assess the viability of using overhead wired to power long-distance vehicles, whereby the trucks operate complete electrically and simultaneously charge their batteries without requiring fuel.

Wind and Solar: New CO2 battery to make renewables dispatchable at remarkable price (Recharge News)
- Energy Dome’s power storage system promises the highest yet round-trip efficiency for energy storage.

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