Renewable energy project first in South Africa

The Herald
Thursday August 31, 2006

IN what is considered a first by a South African institution, the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding with three successful bidders for the supply of renewable energy.

The accepted bidders are Lereko Energy Consortium, which will provide wind turbines, solar heating and electricity generation from waste; Thermo-Rec, which will generate electricity from solid waste; and Enercon India which will establish a “large scale” wind farm.

The three proposals amount to approximately R9-billion.

Speaking at the signing ceremony attended by the Singapore High Commissioner in South Africa, Justice M P H Rubin, and deputy mayor Bicks Ndoni, infrastructure and engineering committee chairman Boyce Tokota hailed the investment, and praised the municipality for pioneering the idea.

Tokota said the project would involve “the establishment of wind farms, solar water heating systems, electricity generation from biomass and landfill gas, and water purification”.

A 400 megawatt co-generation plant that could improve electricity requirements on the national grid, especially in the Eastern Cape and the Coega IDZ, will also be part of the project.

Currently, the municipality has a maximum electricity distribution capacity of 610MW per day, which is expected to increase to an estimated capacity of between 2500MW and 5000MW per day in 10 years.

Coega is considered the biggest contributor to this massive increase in demand.

“The process of the municipality starting now with a process of getting alternative energy resources is therefore of utmost importance as forward-thinking initiatives such as this can avert a possible electricity energy crisis in future,‘‘ said Tokota.

The signing of the memorandum coincided with the municipality‘s renewable energy conference which ended yesterday.

Tokota said there was a lot of international interest in the creation of renewable energy operations in Nelson Mandela Bay. The businesses expressed an interest in the manufacture of products necessary to develop and maintain the renewable energy plants.

During a presentation by one of the companies it emerged that the Stellenbosch municipality has inquired about the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality‘s initiative, “and expressed the intention of copying the model of renewable energy generation”.

Wind data was gathered at Bird Island, Port Elizabeth Airport, the Coega IDZ, Cape Recife, Deal Party and Schoenmakerskop to establish the best site for the wind farm.

Municipal media liaison officer Kupido Baron yesterday said the Deal Party and Coega IDZ sites had emerged at the conference as the preferred sites. Baron said according to studies, it is estimated the Deal Party site would generate about 15MW a day, and the Coega IDZ about 65MW daily.

Also speaking at the function, Ndoni said: “It must be beneficial to our community in more than one way. By ensuring job opportunities we will put those benefiting in a position to directly contribute to the economy of the city, as well as providing them with environmentally friendly energy sources.”

Benefits of renewable energy include growing investor interest globally, more viable and sustainable projects, no cost to the municipality, provision of a reliable energy source and the emergence of related industries.

Ambassador Justice Rubin said trade between South Africa and Singapore was increasing, shooting up to $700-billion (R4,9-trillion) this year.

Justice Rubin said many more Far East investments would occur in South Africa in the years to come. The Straits Group, also represented at the launch, has already to potable water.