CAPE TOWN, Jul 28 2015 (IPS) – Anti-nuclear energy activists are up in arms, and have taken to vigils outside South Africa’s parliament in Cape Town to protest against President Jacob Zuma’s push for nuclear development.

The protest has been building since September 2014 when Zuma struck a deal with Russia’s Rossatom to build up to eight nuclear power stations in South Africa. The stations would cost the country around 1 trillion South African rands (84 billion dollars).

As the protests mount, the Southern African Faith Communities’ Environment Institute (SAFCEI), an interdenominational faith-based environment initiative led by Bishop Geoff Davies, has said the government’s nuclear policy is not only foolish but immoral.

[Read full article from source:  http://www.ipsnews.net/2015/07/one-tune-different-hymns-tackling-climate-change-in-south-africa/]

South Africa, once a net exporter of electricity to sub-Saharan African countries, could import coal and electricity from Mozambique and Botswana to compensate for its own power shortages, Reuters and Mineweb reported.

South Africa’s state-run utility, Eskom, plans to install an additional 6,250 megawatts of power to two new South African coal-fired plants — Medupi and Kusile — according to Willem Theron, business development manager of Eskom Southern Africa transmission group.

Eskom is open to importing coal for plants it still plans to commission, Theron said at coal conference Tuesday in the Mozambique capital Maputo.

“It is assumed that some of the power can be through imports,” Theron told the conference.

Theron said one possibility for coal and electricity imports is Mozambique, where a coal boom has cooled but mines are still being developed. Mozambique has enough supplies to build coal-based power stations, Theron said.

Another possibility for electricity imports is neighboring Botswana, which geologists say has huge untapped reserves, Mineweb reported.

[Read full report from source:  http://afkinsider.com/100995/south-africa-may-import-power-from-mozambique-botswana/]

Powerships can produce electricity at a much cheaper rate than Eskom’s open cycle gas turbines, and can provide the additional power the country needs to avoid most load shedding.  Turkish company Karadeniz Energy Group is confident that it can help solve South Africa’s power problems by supplying its Powerships to Eskom.

Karadeniz claimed that Powerships are a medium-term bridging solution to South Africa’s current energy challenges.

“They will provide the economy with much-needed energy while providing Eskom with the space and time it needs to run important maintenance work on its existing coal fleet and complete its pipeline of new build projects,” the company said.

Two of the ships will soon supply Ghana with 450MW of power after a deal was signed between the country and Karpowership, a subsidiary of the Karadeniz Energy Group. Karpowership sales director Patrick O’Driscoll said they can solve South Africa’s power crisis through a deal like Ghana’s.

[Read full article here….]

Hwange Colliery Co. of Zimbabwe plans to export 50 000 metric tons of coal to neighboring South Africa this year and it’s gauging interest from buyers in Europe and Asia, the head of the company said.

“We are looking at Eskom, but the problem is the issue of price and logistics in terms of how to transport” the coal, Managing Director Thomas Makore said on Thursday in an interview at his office in Hwange, 730 kilometers west of the capital, Harare. Eskom is South Africa’s state-owned power utility.

“We are targeting Eskom, steel and the chrome industries in South Africa,” said Makore. “There is also interest from a number of countries in Europe; there is Turkey, Germany and there is also India.”

The company plans to mine 500 000 tons of coal, of which about 200 000 tons will be produced by Mota Engil of Portugal. In March, Hwange Colliery signed a contract to supply 9 000 tons of coke to Glencore. The company is also taking steps to move into coal liquids, diesel and ammonium nitrate.

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