South Africa’s mining industry has given its backing to moving the economy away from coal but said it must be done gradually and responsibly.
Browsing: Eskom
Mining companies in South Africa are considering spending as much as R40-billion to construct 2GW of power generation capacity.
Cabinet has adopted a more ambitious emissions reduction target ahead of a United Nations climate conference in November.
Eskom is facing a litany of challenges. Energy expert Anton Eberhard posed questions to the power utility’s CEO, André de Ruyter.
The US, Germany, France and the UK will send a delegation to South Africa as soon as next week to seek a deal to begin closing the country’s coal-fired plants.
Despite efforts to make Eskom profitable, including a process of unbundling its divisions into separate entities, “the core problem of debt” has yet to be addressed, Futuregrowth Asset Management has said.
David Masondo, South Africa’s deputy finance minister, has suggested that investors forgive R146-billion of sovereign debt in exchange for Eskom meeting climate targets.
Eskom, South Africa’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, is evaluating the use of carbon capture at power plants as part of decarbonisation plans to transform the coal-burning utility.
Eskom is starting a pilot programme to allow businesses to buy green power. It gives businesses a mechanism to purchase clean energy from the utility without having to own a renewable energy generator.
Unit 1 at the Koeberg nuclear power station near Cape Town tripped on Monday, but Eskom – which operates the facility – said there is no reason for concern about safety.