South Africa

South Korean researchers have developed a long-term solar irradiance prediction method based on a reinforcement learning algorithm. They claim that the new model is able to forecast solar radiation for more than a year using just two weeks of solar radiation learning.

The South African authorities awarded project agreements to two wind-solar-storage hybrid projects that were selected in a 2 GW tech-neutral tender held under the Risk Mitigation Independent Power Producers Procurement Programme (RMIPPPP) in 2021.

Load shedding has been an ongoing challenge to South Africans since 2007. The country currently experiences regular, planned power outages from the national grid, forcing the country’s citizens to look for alternative sources of energy and power. While many solar energy solutions providers in the region focus on commercial and industrial installations, Huawei partner Metrowatt concentrates on the residential sector.

Extensive load-shedding, lack of grid capacity, failing coal-fired power stations, lack of progress in clean power procurement, and even vandalism have prompted various South African government departments to take renewables generation into their own hands, seemingly without any overarching plan, as Bryan Groenendaal reports.

Construction of Phase 2 of the project is expected to commence in December 2023 and be completed in FY25, the company says. Once complete, this will add a further 137 MW.

South Africa has launched a loan guarantee scheme to support commercial and industrial (C&I) solar projects, with the goal of deploying 1 GW of rooftop PV capacity.

News statistics from South African utility Eskom show that the country added 1.82 GW of new distributed-generation PV capacity in the first six months of this year. However, PV analyst Chris Ahlfedlt warns that the published numbers could also include some utility-scale projects.

The National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA) is moving forward with plans to split Eskom into three separate entities. NERSA has granted the National Transmission Company of South Africa the authority to function independently from Eskom, while South Africa’s National Treasury is working on a bill to address the troubled national utility’s ZAR 423 billion ($23 billion) debt burden.

The European Commission and the European Investment Bank have agreed to collaborate with Argentina, Chile and Uruguay on hydrogen, while Masdar, Mitsubishi and Inpex have said that they will use green hydrogen to produce e-methane and polypropylene.