Green Economy Journal Issue 57

PUBLISHER’S NOTE
Recently a new ministerial portfolio was created, and the Honourable
Minister of Electricity, Dr Kgosientso Ramokgopa, was appointed. But
what do we know about him? According to Wikipedia, Kgosientso
“Sputla” Ramokgopa is a South African politician who was the Mayor
of Tshwane from 2010 to 2016. His academic background includes
a Bachelor’s degree in civil engineering, Master’s degrees in public
administration and business leadership and a PhD in public affairs.
He was born in 1975.
I read in media that Ramokgopa left the City of Tshwane bankrupt
after the legal settlement with PEU Capital Partners over a deal to roll
out smart electricity meters across the City ended in litigation.
I would like to share a few first-hand details about Ramokgopa’s
performance at City of Tshwane. It may give an idea as to how he will
tackle his current monumental challenge.
We ran the Sustainability Week conference in partnership with
the City of Tshwane from 2011 to 2016, and Ramokgopa was the
patron of the event. Among a great many other positive projects and
happenings in the green economy that the event’s many sub-sector
conferences focused on, we also showcased the work of Tshwane’s
City Sustainability Unit under the leadership of Dorah Modise,
subsequently influential CEO of Green Building Council SA.
The team under Romokgopa were trailblazers. Aside from many
other achievements, they developed the first Green Service Delivery
Strategy in South Africa and were mandated to act into all City
departments to guide the implementation of interventions aimed at
achieving the stated objectives.
Their projects ranged from the first wheeling deal which facilitated
the Bio2Watt biogas project in Bronkhorstspruit, making electricity
out of various waste streams including sorted municipal solid waste
(MSW) and supplying power to the BMW Rosslyn plant and free WiFi to
all Tshwane residents, to the first fully-mechanised materials recovery
facility (MURF), and the roll-out of smart electricity meters that would
enable net metering for small-scale embedded generation.
Ultimately, Ramakgopa was unseated by an ANC opponent before
they lost the City to the DA.
Having worked with Ramokgopa, albeit at some distance, I feel
optimistic that if anyone in the ANC can pull this mandate through,
it is him.
G R E E N
Economy
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REG NUMBER: 2005/003854/07
VAT NUMBER: 4750243448
PUBLICATION DATE: April 2023
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G R E E N
Economy
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CONTENTS
6 NEWS AND SNIPPETS
ENERGY
10 What the world is learning from SA’s energy transition
16 The Just Energy Transition – what it should be ...
22 It’s time for solar to shine: interview with SAPVIA CEO
26 Business Partners urges companies to go solar
28 The future of onshore wind turbine sourcing
32 Wind energy’s leading role in SA’s Energy Action Plan
36 REVOV says that we are morally bound to demand
environmentally sound batteries
38 Bringing power back to LiFe: we interview REVOV CEO
WASTE
20 NCPC-SA’s waste minimisation programme is improving lives
DECARBONISATION
34 Climate impact imperatives by SRK Consulting
16
28
42
Publisher
EDITOR’S NOTE
Africa is blessed with land and resources, enough to supply the whole
world, and needs to capitalise on this in a sustainable way. We have
sunshine for solar, water for hydro and wind for renewable capacity
and an abundance of biomass and waste that can be converted
to energy. Chris Whyte, ACEN, points out that the key focus here
is energy, and the simple reality is that Africa will never be able to
achieve the SDGs without energy. Everything is reliant on energy: we
need to avoid the expensive mistakes of before and rather implement
viable energy generation (page 16).
The push for renewable energy is showing an increase in solar PV
across the country, which in turn drives demand for components and
services. Don’t miss our interview with the CEO of SAPVIA (page 22)
or our article on wind turbine sourcing (page 28).
Our thought leadership article indicates that despite the speed with
which solar and wind power plants could be built, South Africa’s grid
itself does not have the capacity to distribute that power (page 42).
Alexis Knipe
Editor
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WOOD PULP AND PAPER
8 PAMSA on the circular economy
40 Forestry: a greener more sustainable future
THOUGHT LEADERSHIP
42 Quo vadis infrastructure development
46 DQS Academy: simply leveraging quality
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