Renewable power all the rage

A report on the Arabian Business site notes that Dr Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, chair of the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company (Masdar), said that despite the 'time of economic concern' he was confident that 'renewable energy retains its relevance and continues to make absolute sense'. The World Future Energy Summit (WFES), which opened in Abu Dhabi yesterday, will give delegates a chance to network and exchange notes on global renewable energy issues. According to the report, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish Prime Minister, told delegates that Turkey was aiming for 30% of total electricity capacity to be renewable energy-based by 2023. Full Arabian Business site

SA's energy sector remains troubled by unresolved questions around the future of coal-based power versus renewable alternatives. A Business Day report notes that SA has joined an international agency which promotes renewable energy, even though so far domestic progress in renewable energy has lagged. It says Energy Affairs Minister Dipuo Peters signed the register of the International Renewable Energy Agency (Irena) statutes in Abu Dhabi on Monday. Peters, who is attending the WFES conference, is quoted as saying: 'This is a pioneer development that will enable us to work with other countries to accelerate the introduction of renewable energy and to confront our vexing energy challenges.' Irena was formed last year to provide practical advice and support for both industrialised and developing countries, help them improve their regulatory frameworks and build capacity. Full Business Day report

Cosatu has thrown its weight behind renewable energy. The organisation has said the nuclear option must be taken out of SA's future energy mix, and that instead of building more coal-fired power stations, there was an urgent need for more renewable energy, notes a Cape Times report. Cosatu made the call when the National Energy Regular of SA (Nersa) began hearings last week on Eskom's application for 35%power hikes. Cosatu said Eskom must scrap the nuclear option because there were 'still a lot of question marks around the nuclear plant safety, radioactive waste disposal and possible usage of uranium for weapons'. It noted that renewable energy would be expensive to set up, but would be cheaper in the long run. Full Cape Times report (subscription needed)

There is a groundswell of popular support for alternatives to Eskom's coal-generated power. Public hearings into Eskom's proposed tariff hike picked up pace yesterday as protesters packed a Durban hall and told the power utility to make a plan better suited to a country beset by unemployment and poverty. A report in Business Report notes that community representatives said Eskom's proposal to raise tariffs by 35% for each of the next three years was a 'rip off' that would hit the poor hardest. Sue Britton, a management committee member of the Southern African Faith Communities Environmental Institute, said new generation capacity should be left to independent power producers with experience in harnessing renewable forms of energy. Britton called for a national consultation on the future of energy generation, distribution and availability. Full report in Business Report

Progress is being made in developing renewable energy infrastructure in SA, with a focus on wind power. Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) consultants held public meetings last week to discuss proposals to build a 150-turbine wind farm in the mountains near Caledon that would generate 300MW of electricity, says a Cape Times report. The Caledon Wind Farm would be on 15 farms and cover about 3 700 ha between Bot River and Caledon. Episan (Pty) Ltd, trading as Caledon Wind, plans to establish the wind farm on land it would lease from private landowners in the Theewaterskloof municipal area. Building a wind farm in the Western Cape would reduce energy loss and climate-changing greenhouse emissions. Environmentalist Liz McDaid welcomed the plan, but said the company would need to ensure the public was well informed about the benefits of wind energy or it would meet opposition. Full Cape Times report (subscription needed)

And, diversified miner Exxaro Resources would start installing the first of three anemometry masts at its Namakwa Sands operation, on SA's West Coast, from today, according to a company official. An Engineering News report notes that the masts would obtain on-site wind data to evaluate the wind resource potential at Brand-se-baai, where Exxaro was investigating the feasibility of constructing a 100-MW wind farm. The company was granted approval by the Department of Mineral Resources to erect the three masts at the heavy minerals mine on 4 January. Exxaro's Brand-se-baai mine and the concentration plants are located some 385km north of Cape Town. The empowered miner has similarly been involved in the Tsitsikamma Community Wind Farm project in the Eastern Cape, which is currently in the feasibility study phase. The R1bn project aims to generate 40 MW of wind power by 2013. Full Engineering News report