A young researcher at the University of Free State (UFS) has dedicated her life to finding solutions to the county’s electricity crisis using an unusual energy source – cow dung.

Born and bred in Vereeniging in Gauteng, Reitumetse Molaoa said her main focus was finding ways to generate electricity using biogas produced by food waste and cow dung. She is a postgraduate student and a researcher at the UFS department of microbial, biochemical and food biotechnology.

Biogas can be used for cooking, heating, lighting, and powering generators and turbines.

“Biogas is produced in a digester, an oxygen-free space in which bacteria break down or digest organic material fed into the system. This process naturally produces biogas, which is mainly a mixture of methane and carbon dioxide,” she told News24.

The 22-year-old expressed confidence in her project, and said through her efforts load shedding might become a thing of the past.

“A number of industries in the country, including some farmers, are already enjoying this technology, using it to generate heat and power machines,” she said.

Biogas produces little pollution and fewer greenhouse gases than conventional energy sources, she said.

“Any organic material can be used to make biogas, so it is an excellent way to dispose of agricultural waste, cow dung, and sewage sludge.The remaining liquid effluent can fertilise crops, as it is high in nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium.

“I want to save the country and to bring about solutions to the energy crises. Biogas is a viable option to fossil fuels because it is renewable, sustainable, and cost effective.”

Source:  [http://bit.ly/1T0Tl6l]

South Africa will procure nuclear energy at an affordable pace and scale, President Jacob Zuma said on Thursday.

“We will procure nuclear energy on a scale and pace that the country can afford,” Zuma said in his annual state of the nation address to parliament.

South Africa hopes to install 9,600 megawatts of nuclear power in the next 15 years to address chronic electricity shortages but the cost of the project estimated at about $100 billion has raised budgetary concerns.

Source:  http://bit.ly/1KQC4JW

How high will food prices climb if there is no break in the worst drought in 34 years? Will water shortages, expected over the next decade, change South Africa’s program to continue building two immense, thirsty, overdue, and expensive coal-fired power plants? How much is South Africa willing to invest in drinking water supply and wastewater treatment networks that have been poorly maintained, say local water authority managers, and need to expand to reach millions of residents and prevent raw sewage from contaminating rivers and lakes?

The problems are not short-term. Neither are the solutions, say authorities and citizens. Supplies of water, energy, and food — the basic resources that drive every human community — are not assured in a nation where demand is growing and the capacity to deliver is in jeopardy.

Arguably, clean water is the resource most at risk, say business leaders and analysts here. A study by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, the country’s premier science group, found that much like China, the country’s largest water consumers — mining, coal-fired power plants, agriculture, and cities — face big choices about water consumption and use. If current development trends continue, the convergence of population growth, pollution, and business expansion will leave South Africa with a 2.7 billion cubic meter (713 billion gallons) water deficit by 2030. Translated: South Africa will need 20 percent more water than the 13.5 billion cubic meters (3.5 trillion gallons) that it currently draws each year from rivers, lakes, and aquifers.

COAL COUNTRY

Still, the investment in renewable energy is modest compared to South Africa’s devotion to coal as an electricity-generating fuel source. The country has some 50 billion metric tons of coal in reserve, according to government figures. Some 91 percent of South Africa’s electricity is coal-fired. Thousands of people work in the mines, processing plants, and generating stations in a country wracked by joblessness.

National leaders remain devoted to coal and are determined to finish two, 4,800-megawatt, water-consuming, carbon emitting coal-fired stations in Limpopo and Mpumalanga provinces. Yet advancing management, fiscal, and cultural impediments mount steadily at the Medupi and Kusile stations, which are five years overdue and will not be completed until the early 2020s, according to Eskom Holding Ltd., the government-owned utility that is building the plants. The combined price tag, estimated at more than $US 30 billion, grows 11 percent a year.

In early January, the construction manager of the Medupi station left his position after a decade of service. The South African drought is stirring more civic opposition in communities close to both plants. They are concerned about losing the competition for scarce water with plants that need millions of cubic meters annually to operate.

Lastly, the World Bank, which loaned Eskom $US 3.5 billion to complete the project, criticized the utility for failing to assess water supplies needed for plant operations, and publicly stated that it was worried about rising costs and lengthening construction schedules. Last year, in an unusual and candid display of institutional concern, the World Bank formally identified its Eskom loan as “high risk.”

Choke Point: South Africa will report on the Medupi and Kusile power stations, and other facets of the competition for water, energy, and food in this drying nation.

Read full article:  http://bit.ly/244CKSA

AFTER a year of sliding prices, mining policy uncertainty and labour unrest, the JSE’s coal mining index has taken a severe bruising. The outlook for next year is no better, as China’s coal offtake remains weak, nations have agreed at the recent climate talks to cut carbon emissions, and SA faces increased political flux.

The latest International Energy Agency report, released in the middle of last month, suggested that by 2040, oil and coal would lose 9% of the global energy mix, offset by increased share from renewables, nuclear and gas. Renewables would overtake coal as the main source of electricity by the early 2030s. By 2040, coal would account for only 30% of electricity generation.

For coal companies operating in SA, challenges have mounted this year. Benchmark coal export prices at the Richards Bay Coal Terminal have fallen to $49/tonne from about $66/tonne in January.

The Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act Amendment Bill has stalled and a new minerals minister with no mining background was appointed in September.

A new CEO, Brian Molefe, was appointed at Eskom, which accounts for most of the domestic coal market. Mr Molefe is taking a hardline position on new coal contracts. For all mining companies, the costs of electricity, labour and imported materials have risen faster than inflation this year.

The biggest contributor to the JSE’s coal index is Exxaro, which is under pressure from its iron ore earnings as well as coal. The news from smaller coal miners has been mixed, with boardroom upheavals at Wescoal and Resource Generation, but progress by Coal of Africa in advancing its Makhado project and funding.

In an environment of weakening prices, all companies are trying to improve their margins. Glencore put its loss-making Optimum Coal mine into business rescue in August and Anglo American plans to sell some of its thermal coal interests in SA.

Read full article here