Eskom under fire for power plant

[Catal]

Eskom CEO Jacob Maroga will have to answer questions about the organisation’s Medupi power plant in Limpopo following concerns it will cause water shortages.

The Democratic Alliance said it had confidential e-mails and memos from an Eskom insider showing when it started operating the plant would drain local water supplies and cost more than expected.

The plant needs water to function but there is not enough available in the surrounding area.

The concern is water might be pumped from the Hartbeespoort Dam to supply Medupi which could result in the dam running dry within three months.

The DA’s Kobus Schmidt said, “We’re worried they’re going to use water from the Hartbeespoort Dam without proper planning. They also said they were going to use recycled water from Johannesburg to fill up the dam again but the problem is 70 percent of recycled water from Johannesburg is already being used so there will not be enough left.”

Eskom has been unavailable for comment.

Eskom is royally funking up by increasing their reliance on fossil fuels and h2o hungry power plants, whilst the rest of the civilized world is focusing on green energy. I hope they realize their mistake sooner than later, or we're going to be in an even bigger heap of shat come morning.

Eskom, stop making excuses and take that +5 mil CEO salary and rather use it for sustainable green energy generation.

 

[rebel998]

Wonder what their response will be.

I agree they should be thinking more longterm and invest in enviromentally friendly power generation.

 

[Frankie]

The Medupi power plant , just like the nearby Matimba, and Kendal power plants will be dry cooled, which means their water consumption is relatively low.

Internationally they are still building coal fired units, but these utilise the "clean coal technology" which results in extremely low noxious emissions.

Nuclear power is currently the only viable alternative to coal fired units for large capacity, and yes we should work harder in developing green solutions.