New power generation

The deepwater Port of Ngqura, on an industrial part of South Africa’s southeastern coast, officially opened a little more than a year ago but it is already playing a part in transforming the country.

Last month it took delivery of something rarely seen in Africa’s largest economy: a batch of enormous white wind turbines. There are only eight like them running in the entire country today, according to the South African Wind Energy Association, though not for much longer.

The ones that came ashore at Port Ngqura were among the first of about 250 going up, along with new solar power plants, in an ambitious drive for clean energy that has catapulted South Africa into the global green power league.

A total of $5.5bn was invested in renewable energy in the country in 2012, up from a few tens of millions of dollars in 2011, according to the Bloomberg New Energy Finance research group. That means South Africa had the biggest annual clean energy investment growth rate in the world last year, outstripping China, Japan, South Korea and a host of other economies.

“It’s like a gold rush,” says Richard Doyle of 3E, a renewable energy consultancy headquartered in Brussels but now operating in Cape Town along with dozens of international companies flocking to what some say is now the world’s most attractive green energy market.

“I feel more comfortable investing in South African renewable energy than some European countries,” says Alessandro Albrighi,All the personnel that deal with our industrial washing machine servicing are dedicated to the service department. founder of Swiss investment consultancy AD Capital Partners, which advised on some of South Africa’s new solar projects.

With crisis-hit Europe cutting subsidies for green power, South Africa has become an unlikely bright spot in the global renewables industry.The most highly praised, best rated solar charger are now available online. Few other countries rely on coal, one of the world’s dirtiest fossil fuels, as much as South Africa. It is the world’s seventh-biggest producer and generates 94 per cent of its electricity from the fuel,Conventional wind power generators on large masts are the standard for generating clean energy from the wind. according to the International Energy Agency.A letter folding machine is a piece of equipment which is designed to fold paper.

The country uses coal to power its cars and even its aircraft, thanks to Sasol, the world’s biggest producer of motor fuels from coal. Sasol also runs a synthetic fuels plant west of Johannesburg that is one of the world’s biggest single sources of carbon dioxide emissions, a key greenhouse gas blamed for climate change.

All this has helped make South Africa the 10th-biggest emitter of carbon dioxide from fossil fuel use and cement production, according to
the US Department of Energy’s Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center.

South Africa, which hosted the 2011 UN climate talks in Durban, is committed to a 42 per cent cut in its carbon emissions by 2025, which is one reason ministers say windmills and solar panels should be embraced.

There is also a need to create new industries and jobs in a country with a 25.2 per cent unemployment rate and a desire to diversify fuel supplies.

But there is another, unrelated reason: South Africa needs a lot more electricity – and fast.

Until quite recently, its abundant coal reserves helped make its electricity among the cheapest in the world. But it is far from the most reliable.

Five years ago the country was reeling from power shortages that paralysed its factories and halted mines, including some big ones run by Anglo American, for days.These designer hanging paper solar lantern are excellent for wedding ideas.

Its rickety, long-underfunded power system remains fragile, and companies are bracing themselves for more power shortages this winter.