French multinational energy group TotalEnergies was committed to the energy transition and has a strategy for this, highlighted the group’s MD and CEO marketing and services and country chair and executive VP: Southern Africa Mariam Kane-Garcia on Tuesday. She was addressing a session of the African Refiners and Distributors Association 2024 conference, in Cape Town. The TotalEnergies transition strategy had two pillars, she pointed out. The first was ‘more energy, less emissions’, with fossil fuels. “We are not giving away our core business, which is oil and gas,” she noted. The second was the development of its low-carbon ‘Integrated Power’ business, which involved the deployment of renewable energy.

The Gauteng Provincial Government (GPG) has installed and commissioned a combined equivalent of six independent microgrid power plants through the installation of rooftop solar photovoltaic (PV) and battery storage at 27 prioritised health institutions across the province. The total combined capacity of these solar installations amounts to 6.3 MWh, while the combined battery storage component adds up to a total of 15.6 MWh. These have been installed at 11 public hospitals, nine primary health care clinics, and eight community healthcare centres throughout the province. A twenty-eighth facility will be integrated next month.

Independent power company Globeleq has completed the acquisition of a 48.3% equity stake in the 25 MW Winnergy solar photovoltaic (PV) plant in Egypt from Enerray, Enerray Global Solar Opportunities and Desert Technologies. The plant, which is in operation, is located within Egypt’s flagship Benban Solar complex, near Aswan, and is adjacent to Globeleq’s 66 MW ARC solar plant.

Africa's mid- and downstream oil products supply infrastructure is ageing and suffers from a lack of investment, outdated policy frameworks and insufficiencies in regional, national and urban energy planning when compared with other regions across the world. Efforts have also not kept pace with rapidly growing populations and urbanisation trends, which has resulted in fragmented supply routes, bottlenecks and insufficient infrastructure capacity, contributing to an overreliance on trucks, congestion in cities and ports, and disrupted access to energy.

Flourishing activity in the electric vehicle, power infrastructure, AI and automation sectors will lead to at least 10-million metric tons of additional copper consumption over the next decade, commodity trader Trafigura told Reuters. Technological developments such as artificial intelligence and automation, and the energy transition, which includes electric vehicles and renewable energy, have already driven up demand prospects for copper cable used to conduct electricity.

Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa describes surplus electricity arising from existing renewable energy facilities as “low hanging fruit” in improving the supply-demand balance and reports that discussions are under way to assess ways to make this energy available to the grid. Speaking during a regular update on the Energy Action Plan, Ramokgopa confirmed that the issue, which had been under consideration for years, had again been raised with him by the leadership of Scatec during his recent visit to the group’s Kenhardt solar-battery facility in the Northern Cape.

Albemarle, Cummins and Siemens Energy are some companies that received tax credit under a section of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), according to details released on Friday by the US Department of Energy (DOE). Thirty five projects, focused on electrical grid enhancements, critical minerals, and electric vehicle components, among others, got a total of $1.93-billion in tax credits.

Energy solutions company Kili Energy is spearheading a large-scale initiative, the Kili Energy Clean Energy Democratisation Project, to provide smart liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) canisters and stoves, smart solar systems and novel hydrogen-powered stoves to 3.51-million indigent households in eThekwini, Tshwane, Cape Town, Johannesburg, the OR Tambo district municipality and Nelson Mandela Bay. The aim of the project is to provide energy liberation for townships and other indigent households, while simultaneously contributing to the decarbonisation of the country’s electricity supply.

Proconics' expertise aligns with national projects and is poised to contribute to Eskom’s Transmission Development Plan. Engineering Firm Proconics was among the 14 companies that joined the Eskom Transmission Owner’s Engineer (OE) Panel at a recent signing ceremony event held at Eskom headquarters in Megawatt Park.

A new process being pioneered by energy companies such as Israel-based Helios and Netherlands-based Alkalium proposes the use of sodium metal rather than coal or hydrogen to refine iron-ore into direct reduced iron (DRI). Traditionally, iron is beneficiated by mixing iron-ore fines with coal. The iron oxide (Fe2O3), when heated in a furnace, undergoes a chemical transformation whereby the oxygen molecules from the Fe2O3 bind with the carbon molecules in the coal, creating carbon dioxide (CO2) as a by-product and leaving pure iron behind.