GEORGE NEWS - At their Green Energy Summit held last week, Eden District Municipality (EDM) announced it wants to lead the way for municipalities to switch over to solar energy and other green energy as far as possible.
It was a recurring theme among the speakers that Eskom's ever-spiralling tariff impacts must be halted or circumvented through collaborative relationships which are necessary for the transition to a more energy-efficient South Africa.
Attendees from seven municipal representatives, the CSIR (Council for Scientific and Industrial Research), and green industry role players, also declared their support for three Southern Cape initiatives.
One of these, the R300-million George Biomass Plant, may now take off after agreements between Eskom and the Department of Energy have been signed. This much-awaited signature will provide the green light for the plant to be established next to Steinhoff in Tamsui Industrial area.
The Southern Cape is the first area to have a solar-powered generation plant, which is at the George Airport. EDM has a photovoltaic (PV) plant (solar) in its head office parking lot in George, which yields 150kW in peak time (11:00 to 14:00).
Game-changer
Dr Hildegard Fast, who heads the Western Cape Government's Energy Security Game Changer initiative, says there is an inevitable move towards alternative low-carbon supply and energy efficiency measures.
"If municipal electricity prices increase at the same rate as Eskom, then off-grid systems become more realistic for customers due to improved business cases including enhanced load management." Consequently, the Western Cape's current demand for Eskom electricity is estimated to reduce by as much as 10% by 2020.
"There are many factors in the ever-changing green landscape - there is the roll-out of Independent Power Producers (IPPs) who produce liquefied natural gas (LNG), as well as a move towards efficient solar panel water heaters, which is another game changer."
George Municipality's Lindsay Mooiman (left), Hessequa Municipality's Harold Basson and its Executive Mayor Grant Riddles discussed their green project, which entails the construction of a desalination plant powered by solar energy to augment Witsands' water supply.
Rooftop solar panels
Fast says that the adoption of Small Scale Embedded Generation (SSEG - 1MW electricity generators from wind, solar or biogas) is part of the general game-changing energies.
The South African Local Government Association (Salga) and Association of Municipal Electrical Utilities (Ameu) for municipalities across South Africa regard this as the new standard norm.
This hopefully spells the end to the restrictive power generation practices maintained by Nersa and Eskom.
In the Western Cape, 20 municipalities have already signed agreements, which creates an enabling environment for the roll-out of PV generation in Western Cape municipalities and Eden."
Dysselsdorp
In a PowerPoint presentation, Thebe Investments said the construction of a PV plant comprising solar panels is to commence in 2019 in Dysselsdorp.
This initiative of Thebe Investments offers development and transformation services to local communities, at no cost to them. It will be situated 500m from the Dysselsdorp Eskom substation and will generate a total of 75MWp (DC) at a cost of R862-million, 49% of which will be owned by local shareholders. This PV plant will entail the electrification of schools and businesses, among others.
Carl Siegel, project manager of MBHE (left), spoke to Louis Serfontein, Tishbi (Pty) Ltd Energy and Agri Processing consultant, about the signing of an agreement between Eskom and the Department of Energy, which will give the green light to establishing the George Biomass Plant in Tamsui.
George Biomass Plant
The George Biomass Plant is one of three green initiatives that delegates gave their support to at the summit. The R300-million 7MW/h biomass plant was delayed for many years while awaiting approval from Eskom and the Department of Energy. It is understood that the signing of an agreement is now imminent.
At the summit, MBH Energy's Werner van Wyk said in his presentation about their biomass energy project that the small-scale biomass-to-energy project will result in 100 temporary jobs (during construction) and 30 permanent jobs.
George Herald wrote a report about the project a year ago.
It was reported in a regional newspaper that the signing of a series of agreements between the Department of Energy and Eskom will give momentum to many IPP projects that were stalled throughout the country.
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