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Tuesday, 08 March 2011 09:39 |
 Solar clusters are a golden opportunity
Saliem Fakir, head of the Living Planet Unit at World Wide Fund for Nature South Africa, talks to Energy Forecast about the unexplored potential of solar clusters
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Biomass could improve agriculture sector income |
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Friday, 06 November 2009 06:53 |
 Only 4.5 million hectares of Mozambique’s 63.5 million hectares of arable land are presently being farmed
This year, Mozambican sugar mills estimate they will produce in 2009 about 419 000 metric tonnes of sugar – a 68% increase on 2008. Environmentalists say the waste from this and other resources could see Mozambique become a regional leader in biomass-fired electricity.
The Mozambican government, however, is showing little interest in renewable energy and is throwing its resources behind a US$2.5-billion, 100-metre high dam on the Zambezi at Mphanda Nkuwa, 70km downstream from Cahora Bassa to mostly serve South Africa’s electrical needs, and – which it hopes the European Investment Bank and the World Bank will finance.
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Energy and water interdependencies |
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Friday, 06 November 2009 06:04 |
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 Water and energy are both fundamental requirements for the functioning and maintenance of living systems, from individual organisms to complex human societies
Most economic processes – particularly agriculture and industry – require inputs of both energy and water resources.
Globally, agriculture utilises nearly 70% of the freshwater taken from rivers, lakes and aquifers, while the energy and industry sectors together consume 20% (UN World Water Development Report, WWDR-3 – see Figure 1 - See Below).
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Can SA move to the next phase of economic development? |
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Thursday, 27 August 2009 08:26 |
 A science and technology perspective
The global competitiveness of a nation will always be an important indicator for economic policy-makers in determining the way forward for sustainable economic growth.
Competitiveness tells you much about the innovativeness, efficiency of products and processes, level of skilled labour, efficiency of infrastructure (including education and training institutions), and so forth of a nation.
The World Economic Forum (WEF) identifies three major phases any country has to go through in the continuous development of the economy. In the first, factor-driven phase, a country has to develop a base of available labour and natural resources.
This is followed by a second phase where the labour and natural resources are developed for utilisation in an efficiency-driven product and production environment. Important factors in the second phase are, for example, higher education and training and the efficient use of appropriate technologies.
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New moves to bring more light to Africa |
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Thursday, 27 August 2009 08:18 |
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 About 77% of the sub-Saharan population lives without access to electricity
Looking at night-time satellite pictures of Africa, most of the continent seems to be suffering a giant power cut, particularly when compared with brightly lit Europe or the United States.
But for most Africans, there really is no power to cut – about 77% of the continent’s sub-Saharan population lives without access to electricity, according to experts who met in Paris in June to discuss solutions to Africa’s energy problems.
“The average US citizen uses 350 times more electricity than an Ethiopian citizen,” said Claude Mandil, former executive director of the International Energy Agency, whose headquarters hosted the conference.
“These figures give you an idea how wide the gap is,” he added. “All you have to do is look at how many kilowatts of energy each country uses, and then the problem becomes clear.”
The conference, titled “Access to all forms of energy in Africa: What are the solutions”, highlighted the obstacles to development that the lack of electricity brings.
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Thursday, 27 August 2009 07:52 |
 Active interest remains in onshore and offshore East Africa
ANGOLA
Sociedade Nacional de Combustíveis de Angola (Sonangol) and BP Exploration (Angola) Limited have announced the ‘Oberon’ oil discovery in ultra-deepwater Block 31, offshore Angola.
This is the 18th discovery made by BP in Block 31 and is located in the southern portion of Block 31, about 335 kilometres northwest of Luanda and 4.3km to the north-east of the Dione discovery.
Oberon-1 was drilled in a water depth of 1 624 metres and reached a total depth of 3 622m TVD below sea level. The well test results confirmed the capacity of the reservoir to flow in excess of 5 000 barrels/day under production conditions. Sonangol is the concessionaire of Block 31.
BP Exploration (Angola) Limited as operator holds 26.67%. The other interest owners in Block 31 are Esso Exploration and Production Angola (Block 31) Limited (25%), Sonangol P&P (20%), Statoil Angola AS (a subsidiary of StatoilHydro ASA) (13.33%), Marathon International Petroleum Angola Block 31 Limited (10%) and TEPA (BLOCK 31) Limited, a subsidiary of the Total Group (5%).
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Thursday, 27 August 2009 07:43 |
 IEA Medium-Term forecast shows a 6.6 mmb/d drop in demand
he International Energy Agency (IEA) recently released its 2009 Medium-Term Oil Market Report showing a sharply reduced projection for oil demand growth.
In the material used by the IEA economist charged with announcing the study’s results, it states that the projected oil demand for 2013 is now 3.3 million barrels per day (mmb/d), below the agency’s December forecast.
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Geothermal energy – why so little attention? |
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Thursday, 27 August 2009 07:34 |
 The future could see power stations requiring no fuel and releasing virtually no greenhouse gases into the atmosphere
ikola Tesla, the man who invented the alternating current systems that powered the world, was appalled at the idea of using coal and oil to generate electricity. “That’s like living on capital,” he said.
Tesla’s answer was to use hydroelectric power and then geothermal power. The challenge, as he saw it, was to find an economic way to drill holes deep into the crust of the Earth to tap the unlimited heat seeping up from the Earth’s molten core.
He understood that temperatures increase by between 2.5° and 3° C for every 100 metres of depth from sea level so at, say, 10 000m, the rocks would be about 300° C and capable of producing a continuous supply of steam.
At the time, the technology to drill these deep wells did not exist, but there were a number of ‘hot spots’ where volcanic action brought some of the heat close to the surface in hotwater springs and geysers.
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Thursday, 27 August 2009 07:27 |
 Despite many financial hurdles, the time is ripe for a renewable energy revolution
A global consensus is emerging that the world needs to undergo a rapid transition to a renewable energy regime. The first motivation is the need to reduce carbon emissions in order to have a chance of stabilising the global climate and preventing a catastrophe for humanity.
The second is a desire to enhance energy security in a world facing the depletion of conventional fossil fuels, with remaining reserves increasingly concentrated under the control of national oil companies and often in geopolitically risky regions. Given these strong drivers, are we poised for an energy revolution, or are there pitfalls and obstacles to be overcome?
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Thursday, 27 August 2009 07:15 |
 The world is correct to be concerned about climate change, which poses a major threat
The WWF estimates that by the year 2025, South Africa will have a water deficit of 1.7%
South Africa faces chronic water shortages, yet billions of litres are flushed away every year. Being one of the driest countries in the world, the conservation of water resources and managing wastewater should be a top priority for government.
In its 2008 Living Planet Report, which included a special chapter on water consumption, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) said that water shortage is a genuine threat, as 98% of the country’s water resources are already fully utilised.
South Africa’s rainfall is almost 400mm below the worldwide average of 860mm per year. The situation will worsen because of increased water demands and usage due to the expansion of both the economy and the population.
In its report, the WWF estimates that by the year 2025, South Africa will have a water deficit of 1.7%.
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Green project management and the BP Deepwater Horizon spill
