Excerpts from Creamer Media’s Mining Weekly

COAL

ASX-listed coal-miner Riversdale Mining would submit a feasibility study and an environmental impact study (EIS) for its proposed plan to transport coal via barge along the Zambezi river, in Mozambique, to that country’s government during the second half of next year. The company on Monday said that it had completed a series of studies on the Zambezi river to confirm the viability of large-scale barging of coal to an offshore floating transloading vessel, adding that it had found no physical impediments to coal barging on the river. Full Article

The National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) revealed on Thursday that it would make a final determination on Eskom's tariff request by February 24, 2010, well ahead of the start of the utility's financial year on April 1, 2010. Full Article

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While Gigajoule Africa had met the minimum application requirements when submitting applications for licences to construct gas distribution and transmission facilities, as well as to trade gas, in the Cape West Coast region, it had failed to produce sufficient documentation and evidence, such as proof of gas supply, the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) regulator member for piped gas Ethel Teljeur said on Thursday. The company had planned to source either compressed natural... Full Article

Grahamstown may get 36 MW wind farm
Rhodes University and wind energy operator InnoWind have signed an agreement to collaborate on research and development related to the construction of a 36-MW wind farm in the Grahamstown area. InnoWind was building the 12-turbine wind farm, which would become operational and sell electricity to the Eskom national grid, as soon as the enabling renewable energy regulations were finalised and implemented by government. Full Article

The ‘cleantech', or low-carbon technology sector, was the fastest growing among venture capital sectors, and experienced 1 000% growth between 2000 and 2007, making it the third venture capital sector in size, after information and communications technology and biotechnology. In addition, noted World Wide Fund for Nature trade and investment adviser Peet du Plooy, at a cost of €400-billion, the North African Desertec mega-grid solar project, was the world's largest ever engineering project. Full Article

Despite fears of failure facing global climate change negotiations in December, the UN climate panel chief said on Wednesday it was still possible to agree a pact, including levels of emission cuts by rich nations. Talks for a treaty to succeed the Kyoto Protocol, which obliges 37 rich nations to cut emissions by an average of 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2008-12, are deadlocked on the question of cuts to be taken by rich and poorer countries. Full Article

Sasol executive director Dr Benny Mokaba has resigned as a director of the petrochemicals group as from Wednesday. The group announced that Mokaba, which was appointed as an executive director in 2006, would leave the employment of Sasol on January 1, 2010, but would make some of his time available to render consultancy services to the group on selected projects. Full Article

Many of the world’s conventional power plants were getting old and in need of replacement, and this was a distinct opportunity for renewable energy, emphasised International Solar Energy Society (ISES) president Monica Oliphant. She noted that in the European Union alone, some 450 GW of electricity generating plant was set to go offline by 2015. Full Article

Energy Minister Dipuo Peters would present South Africa’s National Solar Water Heating (SWH) strategic framework to all interested stakeholders on November 5, in Johannesburg. The broad areas of the framework included: a national vision for SWH in South Africa; objectives to be achieved; and achievable short, medium and long term national targets. Full Article

 

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RENEWABLE ENERGY

Johannesburg-based renewable energy company Voltas Technologies has installed, and is monitoring, a solar-thermal driven air-conditioning system at the Netcare Moot hospital, in Pretoria. "It is an important time for us in South Africa - we are starting to see some movement in solar technologies as people become more open to the idea," explains Voltas Technologies director Cristian Cernat. Full Article

The world needs to build 100 major projects for capturing and burying greenhouse gases by 2020 and thousands more by 2050 to help combat climate change, the head of the International Energy Agency said on Tuesday. Nobuo Tanaka said the drive, mostly to capture emissions from coal-fired power plants, would cost $56-billion by 2020 alone. Carbon capture funding could be a key part of a new UN climate treaty due to be agreed in Copenhagen in December. Full Article

A public-private partnership (PPP) between the Central Energy Fund and the National Empowerment Fund, and private investors, such as petrochemicals giant Sasol and the University of Johannesburg (UJ), has been set up to commercialise superthin solar technology in South Africa, as well as in Germany. UJ department of physics professor Vivian Alberts said on Monday that Thin Film Solar Technology (TFST) had procured land in the Western Cape to build a facility that will produce thin-film solar... Full Article

South African power utility Eskom said on Monday that it had a budget specifically allocated for a concentrated solar power (CSP) demonstration and pilot project of R7,5-billion over the next ten years, as the utility sought to diversify its energy mix away from coal. Eskom technology, strategy and planning manager Barry MacColl, however, emphasised that this was a budget request that still needed approval through the tariff increase application, which the utility submitted to the National... Full Article

The integration of air quality considerations into the transport, energy and spatial development planning sectors, as well as the cost optimisation of air quality monitoring systems, were just some of the areas South Africa had to do more work on. This was highlighted with the release of the South African State of the Air Report 2005, launched by Water and Environmental Affairs Deputy-Minister Rejoice Mabudafhasi, in Vanderbijlpark, on Monday. Full Article