Green Economy Journal Issue 57

NEWS & SNIPPETS
NEWS & SNIPPETS
SA WELCOMES CLIMATE CHANGE REPORT
South Africa welcomes the release
of the Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change (IPCC)’s Summary for
Policy Makers and a longer synthesis
report of the Sixth Assessment Cycle.
“The report brings together the work
of leading global scientists over the
past six years and clearly shows that
more than a century of burning fossil
fuels and unsustainable energy and
land use worldwide, but in particular in
developed countries, has led to global
Minister Creecy.
warming of 1.1°C since the start of the
industrial revolution,” says the Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and
the Environment, Barbara Creecy.
The IPCC finds that with every increment of warming, the risks,
impacts, related losses and damages escalate. When these risks
combine with other adverse events, such as pollution and loss of
biological diversity, they cascade across sectors and regions and
become increasingly difficult to manage. Nothing less than an
emergency response will suffice.
“It is therefore important, particularly in this decade, to accelerate
efforts to adapt to the reality of a rapidly changing climate and to
close the existing adaptation gap,” says Minister Creecy.
The scientists tell us that global emissions should already be
decreasing and be cut by almost half by 2030. Ultimately, the only
way to stabilise warming is to reach net zero CO2 emissions. To limit
warming to 1.5°C would require net zero CO2 in the early 2050s,
followed by net negative CO2 emissions in the decades thereafter.
“Through the Just Energy Transition Investment Plan (JET-IP) we
have identified measures in the electricity, transport and hydrogen
sectors and value chains to contribute to decarbonisation of our
economy. It is not just an energy transition plan, but a just one –
and this puts workers and communities at the centre of defining
their future in a low carbon economy. The JETP-IP will require over
R1.5-trillion to be fully implemented. We have challenged our
partners and multilateral development banks to increase finance
for climate investments. This is important to achieve global
climate goals and our view is that there is sufficient global capital
to close the gaps.”
The IPCC indicates that these finance gaps and opportunities
are greatest in developing economies. A rapid scaling up of
finance flows from global capital markets and supporting public
funding from developed economies for enhanced mitigation and
accelerated adaptation, can act as a catalyst for accelerating the
global shift to sustainable development.
More importantly, the IPCC indicates that grant-based public
financing is crucial to accelerate adaptation activity, which is
severely underfunded. The greatest gains in wellbeing can be
achieved by prioritising finance to reduce climate risk for the most
vulnerable regions (especially in Sub-Saharan Africa), and for the
most vulnerable, low-income and marginalised communities.
Mitigation faces a different challenge: leveraging private finance
through public financing by reducing some of the risks inherent
in upscaling mitigation, especially in newer sectors, and in developing
regions, including those facing debt and public financing
macroeconomic constraints. The JET-IP needs to support social
justice, including in financial terms.
JET MUST CONSIDER AFRICA’S NEEDS
Africa must be given the space to transition from high carbon usage
to low carbon at a pace and cost that it can afford, says Minister of
Mineral Resources and Energy Gwede Mantashe.
“Their voice [African people] on the energy transition must be heard.
That is the voice that says, energy production in Africa must be aligned
to Africa’s socio-economic development. This means that there must be
a balance between energy demand for socio-economic development
and energy supply that is premised on low carbon emissions,” he says.
Africa’s mineral resources
Mantashe says the continent’s rich endowment with minerals that
are suitable for clean energy production could mean a boost for the
continent’s economies. “We believe that it is in the interest of Africa
that a rigorous mineral exploration programme is implemented to
uncover these unknown deposits in many other countries of our
continent. For its part, South Africa continues to mobilise investments
in exploration informed by the understanding that it is the lifeblood of
mining, which has been the backbone of our economic development
for over 150 years.”
NEW CEO FOR PRO ALLIANCE
The Paper and Packaging PRO Alliance has announced the
appointment of Dorah Modise as its new chief executive officer,
effective from 1 April 2023. Modise’s personal philosophy,
backed by considerable experience, is fully attuned to her new
set of responsibilities.
“I look forward to working with alliance partners in leading this
great organisation that will demonstrate the power of collective
action in a dynamic sector that is largely untapped. Waste is the
new gold and with industry taking the lead on massifying recycling,
recovery, beneficiation and market enhancement programmes, we
will take several steps towards achieving sustainability,” she says.
WOLF WIND BREEZES CLOSER TO NATIONAL GRID
An 84MW Wolf Wind project in the Eastern Cape has reached
financial close and is projected to start generating electricity for
the national grid by the first quarter of 2024.
Juwi Renewable Energies reports that exploding public and
private demand for large-scale renewables because of South Africa’s
energy crisis has led to the rapid expansion of its national footprint,
with more than 1.5GW of wind, 2GW of solar and 500MW of hybrid
projects incorporating storage in development for private and public
energy users.
The Wolf Wind project was successfully bid by Red Rocket in
Round 5 of the government’s Renewable Energy Independent
Power Producers Procurement Programme (REI4P). Wolf Wind is
the second wind project developed by Juwi to reach financial close
under the REI4P – the first being the 138MW Garob Wind Project,
which reached commercial operation in 2021. The Wolf Wind Project
is expected to generate more than 360GWh of clean electricity
for the South African grid each year, offsetting 374 400 tons of
CO2 each year.
Positive economic contribution
Wind has significantly demonstrated its positive economic contribution
with a total procurement by wind IPPs during construction and
operations to date exceeding R9-billion in value.
SAWEA’s chief communications officer, Morongoa Ramaboa, says
the Association welcomes the government’s approach to accelerate
private investment in generation capacity, through the removal of
the licensing requirement for generation projects of any size, the
RECYCLABLE WIND TURBINE BLADES
Nordex Group is participating as one of the 18 partners, in a
sustainability project funded by the European Union, to drive
the recycling of high-value rotor blade materials from wind
turbine blades.
Currently, 85% to 95% of a Nordex wind turbine is recyclable. For
many of the materials used, there are established recycling processes
for environmentally-friendly disposal – especially for steel and
concrete, which make up the largest share of a wind turbine in the
tower and foundation.
Turbine rotor blades consist of a combination of different materials
such as wood, various metals, adhesives, paints and composites.
The composites are glass-fibre-reinforced plastics, as well as carbonfibre-reinforced
plastics. At the end of their life, rotor blades are more
challenging to recycle due to the heterogeneity of the material and
the strong adhesion between the fibres and polymers. Recycling
processes for these materials are not yet fully established, and reuse
of recycled materials is not widespread.
reduction of timeframes for regulatory approvals, as well as the
establishment of a “one-stop shop” for energy projects through
Invest SA.
“The ideal is to create an environment that encourages and
accelerates investment injection into the economy, removing the
pressure from public fiscus, and to stimulate the private sector to
invest in their own energy supply and create new industries,” she says.
Niveshen Govender, SAWEA CEO, says a clearly defined queueing
system needs to be urgently implemented with a balanced view
between publicly and privately procured electricity.
“Ministerial determination for over 18 000MW of new generation
capacity from wind, solar and battery storage should be prioritised
since it was published in August last year,” he says, noting that the
intention to enable businesses and households to invest in rooftop
solar is a good start towards addressing the country’s energy
crisis. This requires the development of a net billing framework for
municipalities to enable customers to feed electricity from rooftop
solar installations into the grid.
“To realise our vision of becoming a thriving commercial wind
power industry that supports government in its mandate to secure
energy for South Africa, we cannot afford a repeat of the latest failed
public procurement bid window (BW6), which has resulted in the loss
of investment and market confidence.
“The current system for allocating grid access remains a pressure
point as it marginalises capable and willing organisations that can
contribute significantly to the supply of electricity,” Govender says.
By Neesa Moodley. Courtesy Daily Maverick.
“In line with our group’s Sustainability Strategy 2025, ambitious
goals have been set, including offering the market a fully recyclable
blade within the next decade, with the target set for 2032,”
explained Nordex MD, Compton Saunders.
To reach this goal, Nordex have conducted and participated in
several Research and Development projects, one of which is the
European-funded “Wind turbine blades End of Life through Open
HUBs for circular materials in sustainable business models”, or
EoLO-HUBS for short.
The objective of the EoLO-HUBS project is to demonstrate and
validate a set of innovative composite material recycling technologies
which will provide answers to the three main areas involved in endof-life
wind farm recycling: de-commissioning and pre-treatment
of wind turbine blades; sustainable fibre reclamation processes
addressing two alternative routes: low-carbon pyrolysis and green
chemistry solvolysis; upgrading processes for the recovered fibres
addressing mainly glass fibres as well as carbon fibres.
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