clean energy - The African Mirror

Apr

2024

Wind energy to help clean South Africa’s dirty carbon “hotspot”

PRIVATE wind energy projects for commercial and industrial purposes are ramping up the uptake of wind energy in South Africa while complementing clean energy's solar dominance to provide power for industries. Construction recently commenced on three wind sites to power Sasol’s Secunda industrial complex in Mpumalanga. The project is led by a consortium that includes Italian renewable energy developer Enel Green Power. The Secunda complex, which started commercial operations in 1990, is reportedly the biggest single-site carbon emitter globally, according to a 2020 Bloomberg report. “At 56.5 million tons of greenhouse gases a year, Secunda's emissions exceed the individual totals…

May

2023

By NOAH BROWNING

Solar power due to overtake oil production investment for first time -IEA

BUSINESS

INVESTMENT in clean energy will extend its lead over spending on fossil fuels in 2023, the International Energy Agency said, with solar projects expected to outpace outlays on oil production for the first time. Annual investment in renewable energy is up by nearly a quarter since 2021 compared to a 15% rise for fossil fuels, the Paris-based energy watchdog said in its World Energy Investment report. Around 90% of that clean energy spending comes from advanced economies and China, however, highlighting the global divide between rich and poor countries as fossil fuel investment is still double the levels needed to…

Nov

2022

By The African Mirror

How green is my President? Liberia’s George Weah is leading the shift to clean energy

NEWS

LAYMAH KOLLIE, BIRD STORY AGENCY AS soon as he assumed office in 2018, Liberian President George Weah, a global soccer star, decided to embrace renewable energy as part of his bid to effect socio-economic transformation in his country. His goal, as outlined in his plan, was to "eradicate poverty amongst Liberians who had been traumatised by civil strife and improve economic growth while addressing climate change and infrastructural developments". To curb the high cost of off-grid solar energy products, Weah, in May 2022, issued an executive order suspending import tariffs on off-grid solar lighting appliances and other indirect solar energy…

May

2022

By The African Mirror

Africa’s $25-billion climate change war chest

ENVIRONMENT

ZUBAIDA MABUNO ISMAIL, BIRD STORY AGENCY THE African Development Bank plans to commit some 25 billion US dollars (US$) to programmes to mitigate the impact of Climate Change - among them, clean energy and emergency food production - over the next three years. This is just a fraction of the estimated amount - between US$1.3 trillion and US$1.6 trillion - that the continent requires to tackle the threat by 2030. Speaking at the 57th Annual Meeting of the bank in the Ghanaian capital, Accra, the bank's president, Akinwumi Adesina, said Africa needs more resources to combat the effects of climate…

Apr

2022

By The African Mirror

‘It’s our sun’: Rural South Africans seek greater gains from clean energy

ENVIRONMENT

KIM HARRISBERG THE grassy greens and browns of South Africa's semi-desert Karoo region are fast becoming dotted with flashes of silver and white, as solar and wind farms spring up across the vast, sun-soaked land in Northern Cape province. But nearby communities - where unemployment and drug-use are a persistent problem - say that even as profits trickle into their towns, more can be done to distribute fairly the benefits from the renewable energy they believe belongs to them. "There was excitement when we saw the (solar) panels being built," said Rose Bailey, a social worker in De Aar, a…

Feb

2021

By The African Mirror

Move into government, U.N. official urges young climate activists

SCIENCE, TECH AND INNOVATION, ENVIRONMENT

LAURIE GOERING A generation of young activists eager to set the agenda on global warming and clean energy should seek government jobs as a way to get lagging climate and energy goals back on track, a top U.N. energy official said on Tuesday. "We can't keep doing things from outside," Damilola Ogunbiyi, co-chair of U.N. Energy and chief executive of Sustainable Energy for All (SEforAll), told an online youth summit on achieving universal clean energy access. With the world falling behind on goals to bring clean, affordable energy to billions more people by 2030, "changing the minds of leaders has to happen…

Jan

2021

By The African Mirror

Africa’s leap to clean energy seen needing policy change, investment

ENVIRONMENT

KIM HARRISBERG RENEWABLE energy is expected to account for less than 10% of Africa's electricity generation by 2030, showing massive investment is needed to unlock the continent's wind and solar power potential, researchers said on Monday. Drastic policy change and investment will also be needed if the notion of Africa "leapfrogging to renewables" is plausible, according to the authors of a new study by the University of Oxford, published in the academic journal Nature Energy. Using machine-learning techniques to analyse more than 2,500 power plants in 54 African countries, the article showed non-hydro renewable energy, such as geothermal, solar and wind energy,…