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Opinion: A call for clear, uniform solar policy in South Africa

Published: 24 Apr 24

In this article, residential solar solutions provider GoSolr CEO and co-founder Andrew Middleton, writes that solar power has the potential to significantly reduce loadshedding, but patchwork policies, differing tariffs and a lack of incentives are stalling growth.

MTN South Africa, Investec, Electrum collaborate to introduce PayShap on MoMo

Published: 24 Apr 24

Information and communications technology group MTN South Africa has partnered with Investec and Electrum to introduce the PayShap solution on its Mobile Money (MoMo) platform. The collaboration aims to provide users with an instant, cost-effective mobile payment system, with MoMo becoming the first non-banking player to offer PayShap, which will address a critical gap in serving the unbanked population.

Trade, Industry and Competition Minister Ebrahim Patel

Successes, learnings on employee share ownership plans marked

Published: 23 Apr 24

Employee share ownership plans (ESOPs) or worker share ownership programmes have enjoyed several successes in South Africa, especially gaining traction in the past five years, and this needs to continue and be bolstered to reach more people and contribute to the country’s economic growth. Speakers highlighted this during the inaugural Worker Share Ownership Conference, held on April 23, in Sandton, Johannesburg.

TotalEnergies committed to the energy transition, assures company executive

Published: 23 Apr 24

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.

Battery and invertor at government clinic

Gauteng govt rolls out 6.3 MWh of solar power at 27 healthcare facilities

Published: 23 Apr 24

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.

Unctad calls for innovative investment strategies as global crises fracture foreign investment

Published: 23 Apr 24

Amid the complex landscape of global foreign direct investment (FDI), the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad) has called for innovative investment strategies to foster inclusive and sustainable economic growth. In its report titled ‘Global Economic Fracturing and Shifting Investment Patterns’, the agency points to key FDI trends that have evolved over the past two decades.

Invictus partners with Zim-focused gold miner to investigate gas supply to Eureka mine

Published: 23 Apr 24

ASX-listed Invictus Energy has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) that could lead to a maiden gas offtake agreement with Dallaglio Investments, involving the supply of gas to the Eureka gold mine, in Zimbabwe. Invictus will supply natural gas from the Cabora Bassa project, in Zimbabwe, as feedstock for the Dallaglio’s proposed gas-to-power (GtP) plant.

Urgent need to develop Africa’s fuel storage, distribution networks – Puma Energy

Published: 23 Apr 24

Puma Energy Africa head Fadi Mitri has issued a call to action to the African Refiners and Distributors Association (ARDA) to urgently develop the continent’s energy infrastructure. ARDA is the pan-African organisation for the downstream oil sector.

Globeleq acquires 48.3% interest in Egypt solar plant

Published: 23 Apr 24

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.

Cisco launches AI-powered Hypershield service to protect modern data centres

Published: 23 Apr 24

Networking and security multinational Cisco has launched its Hypershield service, which is a cloud-native, artificial intelligence- (AI-) powered approach to highly distributed security for AI-scale data centres that is built into the fabric of the network, says Cisco executive VP and security and collaboration GM Jeetu Patel. Hypershield is a new security architecture that is built with technology originally developed for hyperscale public clouds. It is now available to enterprise information technology teams of all sizes.