I have never been a big supporter of Eskom building yet another dirty coal fired power plant so I am glad to report that the country will be building two clean energy plants,one 100 MW wind farm and one 100 MW concentrated solar power (CSP) plant.
Concetrated Solap power
Power utility Eskom has revived two renewable energy projects after the injection of funds from a World Bank loan earlier this month,the company said on Friday.
Eskom has previously said some $260m of the total World Bank loan would go to the two renewable energy projects.
The company will try to seek the balance of the cost for the two projects,estimated at a total of between R9bn to R10bn,this year,Steve Lennon,Eskom’s managing director for corporate services told Engineering News in an interview.
Construction on both projects could start in early 2011,the online publication reported.
The Sere wind farm will be built near Skaapvlei,some 160km north of Cape Town. Eskom has said in the past the project could be scaled up to produce 200 MW in the future,but the company was not betting on wind as a major contributor to its power grid owing to its inconsistency .
The CSP plant will be built in South Africa’s Northern Cape province,seen as having the world’s highest solar potential.
Source:Fin24
This is definitely a major step forward in South Africa curbing it’s carbon emissions. However an issue of great concern is our countries fresh water supply. Even if the country is to build several desalination plants at coastal town and cities this will only worsen the problem at our waste water treatment plants as they will be receiving an even greater quantity of water. Desalination might meet our fresh water needs in the short term but as more and more water is consumed and sent to the wastewater treatment plants we will have a higher frequency of sewage spills from our inadequate sewage treatment plants. The most effective solution to this problem is grey water recycling.
