Companies building private power in South Africa - including biogas from SAB

[Jan]

South African companies betting big on private power — including electricity from cow dung

South African businesses are investing billions into self-generating power capacity to combat the impact of load-shedding on their operations and reduce their carbon footprint.

In the last few months, news headlines have been filled with updates from various companies regarding ambitious plans to reduce their reliance on the grid and increase their consumption of renewables.

 

[LazyLion]

Unfortunately still not enough for critical base load generation.

The Government needs to wake up and implement drastic reforms.

 

[ToxicBunny]

Unfortunately still not enough for critical base load generation.

The Government needs to wake up and implement drastic reforms.

Not gonna happen.

 

[Fuzzbox]

With Gwede in charge, everything to do with IPPs will drag and delay as long as possible.

No political will at all.

Party First.
Country second.

 

[ToxicBunny]

With Gwede in charge, everything to do with IPPs will drag and delay as long as possible.

No political will at all.

Party First.
Country second.

Party first
Retirement fund second
Fsck everything else.

 

[yebocan]

With Gwede in charge, everything to do with IPPs will drag and delay as long as possible.

No political will at all.

Party First.
Country second.

by looks of it the private sector will be ones solving our energy problem...coupled with the fact that local governments will look beyond Eskom . by the time Gwede/Energy Dept wakes up, no one will be looking to Eskom...back to the days when power generations was a local level competency

 

[borro]

 

[CartoonFan]

If all that power demand is taken off the grid it will reduce loadshedding by almost 6 stages. That's assuming that the new generation is only being used to remove existing demand from the grid and these businesses are not using this power to expand their operation.

 

[Martin_P]

One big advantage of being a late adopter of new technologies the prices are low and the technology is alot more advance.

 

[RonSwanson]

I am curious about the biogas plant. @Jan do you think that someone could write an article with lots of photos and video?

 

[Unreal]

by looks of it the private sector will be ones solving our energy problem...coupled with the fact that local governments will look beyond Eskom . by the time Gwede/Energy Dept wakes up, no one will be looking to Eskom...back to the days when power generations was a local level competency

By the looks of it the private sector is the reason for our energy problems

 

[Unreal]

I am curious about the biogas plant. @Jan do you think that someone could write an article with lots of photos and video?

Yuck!

 

[McGuywer]

I am curious about the biogas plant. @Jan do you think that someone could write an article with lots of photos and video?

Yes please, pictures as well, then I can look at something.

 

[Lupus]

By the looks of it the private sector is the reason for our energy problems

They actually are, smelters use more power then most cities

 

[R13...]

I am curious about the biogas plant. @Jan do you think that someone could write an article with lots of photos and video?

feast your eyes https://www.bio2watt.com/

 

[TheMightyQuinn]

They actually are, smelters use more power then most cities

Are there still any left in SA?
ALL the big ones have closed AFAIK and the one small one left, is also being phased out.

 

[Lupus]

Are there still any left in SA?
ALL the big ones have closed AFAIK and the one small one left, is also being phased out.

They were last year as they were firing back up after being down for sometime after COVID, that would explain the massive jumps in demand since 2021.
I know the refineries aren't

 

[R13...]

Are there still any left in SA?
ALL the big ones have closed AFAIK and the one small one left, is also being phased out.

Plenty smelters, each of the big mining companies own several and then you have the ones in Richards Bay, Mittal, aluminum, steel, other metals, etc. Some of the aluminium ones are gas though but RB ones are electrical and those are the big daddies.

 

[TheMightyQuinn]

They were last year as they were firing back up after being down for sometime after COVID, that would explain the massive jumps in demand since 2021.
I know the refineries aren't

Yep...and the government has also managed to fuk up the whole industry with their stupid taxation on export of platinum ore etc. But that is a discussion for another thread.

Interestingly enough our electricity was provided so cheaply to smelters that the biggest platinum min ein the world, in Australia, used to ship their ore to SA to be smelted. And then the ferrochrome would be exported from here back to China.

A very interesting industry when one starts......mining....deeper into it.

 

[TheMightyQuinn]

Plenty smelters, each of the big mining companies own several and then you have the ones in Richards Bay, Mittal, aluminum, steel, other metals, etc. Some of the aluminium ones are gas though but RB ones are electrical and those are the big daddies.

Not really...There are two major aluminium extrusion businesses and a number of smaller operations in South Africa, with manufacturing facilities in Gauteng, Kwazulu Natal and the Western Cape.

Most of our ore is now exported to China who have built there own smelters.

The industry is however subdivided into smaller functions that all use electricity too, but not anywhere near the scale of these smelters that use 9% of SA total electricity generation.

Like I mentioned before, Hillside, the Ozz operation, is by far the biggest.