Energy

IT (MOSTLY) COMES DOWN TO MONEY

Last year, renewables overtook coal in terms of global power generation – a historic milestone. While this bodes well for a future where we’re not all squeezed into increasingly shrinking islands of inhabitable land, _ fighting over scant resources while trying to live solely off drought-resistant crops, we’re still not quite on track. Policy shifts under Donald Trump’s regime have seen the United States’ projected new renewable builds halve, while changes in China’s energy market have impacted project affordability, slowing things down from the breakneck pace that has characterised recent years.

A lot of this is about money, where it comes from and where it flows. This is very apparent on local shores. Just look at our ageing transmission infrastructure, a product of decades of underinvestment by Eskom and compounded by the withdrawal of United States funding for the Just Energy Transition Investment Plan. With the World Bank considering a considerable loan to help develop this crucial infrastructure, we look at what sort of conditions need to be met to secure this much-needed funding.

We also examine the evolving role of banks in this ecosystem, moving from being just lenders to becoming long-term strategic partners. Battery energy storage systems are driving an evolution in the wholesale electricity market, offering both critical risk mitigation and diversified revenue generation capabilities, while providing tangible cost savings for businesses through energy arbitrage.

Municipalities are taking advantage of these and other developments to offset power availability issues, particularly in Cape Town, which we examine in terms of its energy-resilience measures. Cape Town also continues to rely on Koeberg, Africa’s only nuclear power station – but with plans still afoot to build new nuclear capacity, we ask if this is really feasible (or affordable).

Finally, we check out a new fleet of pharma-compliant electric vehicles operating in the last-mile space, where cost and emissions savings can really be realised. So yes, most of this is really about money. Hopefully, we can keep it flowing into renewables, because it won’t be much use in a world on fire.

Anthony Sharpe, Editor