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Large renewable procurement in South Africa and ambitious hydrogen production plans in Egypt are expected to bring huge amounts of privately-owned, utility-scale solar capacity on line in the next three years. Meanwhile commercial and industrial solar remains a high growth potential market, according to analysis of  new data from the African Energy Live Data platform.

An early September judgement confirming the Eastern Cape High Court’s rejection of Shell’s attempt to conduct seismic surveys along South Africa’s eastern coast will leave the government – and oil companies – with plenty of food for thought, as South Africa and many other countries look to produce more hydrocarbons in sensitive environments, James Gavin writes.

Schools have joined an increasing number of electricity users turning to alternatives to state utility Eskom as the energy crisis continues to take its toll in South Africa. As many as 41 schools in Western Cape province, with a combined capacity of 25.87MW, have applied to the Ministry of Education for connection to distributed solar PV systems.

Growthpoint Properties continue its plan to install 20MW of solar capacity at properties across South Africa.

Mineral resources and energy minister Gwede Mantashe plans to create a new state-owned company – working title Generation 2 – to redevelop three of state utility Eskom’s coal-fired plants by converting them into gas-to-power units.

The addition of Senegal to the list of countries negotiating a Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) with G7 counterparties is an important diplomatic achievement for those countries in the developed world striving to keep the concept of just transition alive. It would have been difficult for the just transition concept to maintain its claims to moral credibility – that it is a viable route to justice in climate finance – if it could not find even one more African partner to sign up for a JETP.

More information has emerged about the mix of finance that will support South Africa’s Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP). An official source from a G7 country told African Energy “there is an amount of grant and technical assistance. It is significant but not enormous.”

South African coal miner Seriti Resources has signed a deal to acquire a 51% stake in renewable energy firm Windlab Africa as part of its efforts to diversify into renewables

The Enel Green Power South Africa operated Soetwater wind farm in the Northern Cape is now supplying 147MW to the national grid after the start of commercial operations was announced on 21 July.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa announced a series of potentially far-reaching reforms for the electricity supply industry in a speech on 25 July, with measures that will be controversial in some quarters and are unlikely to end load-shedding in the short-term – but which should accelerate the power sector’s liberalisation, while easing some procurement and development difficulties.

Among the most eye-catching parts of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s speech on 25 July was a commitment to remove the threshold above which a generation licence is required. African Energy takes a look at the implications of the announcement.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has said  that Eskom will start to buy power through the Southern African Power Pool (SAPP). This development could have important repercussions for pricing dynamics on the SAPP market, changing the environment significantly for active members, as well as for independent power producers (IPPs) interested in selling to the pool.

The Southern African Power Pool (SAPP) offers several potential markets using a battery: the day-ahead market where power is traded in hourly slots; intra-day which is also hourly and operates two hours in advance; and a new balancing market which is an hour ahead for 15-minute intervals.

An upgraded solar PV plant for Gold Fields’ South Deep Mine in South Africa is on schedule to be commissioned during Q3 2022, after construction of the ZAR715m ($42.4m) plant started in Q3 2021

Construction starts have been announced by Oslo-based developer Scatec after the three Kenhardt projects in the Northern Cape reached financial close. “The project will be the largest investment in Scatec’s history,” the company said – and South Africa’s (and one of the world’s) largest solar and battery facilities.