South Africa’s starting ambitious new projects to diversify its energy sources and end the regular power cuts which have been the bane of Africa’s most advanced economy in recent years. Solar and wind energy plants are sprouting across the country, while the government is planning a huge and controversial expansion of nuclear power.
The methane gas produced by cows may be a dangerous greenhouse gas but their dung is recycled and transformed into energy. Not far from South Africa’s capital, Pretoria, this factory mixes the manure with organic waste like paper and expired yogurt from landfills and markets.
The result of the factory mix is a 4.4 MW of electricity, used to power a car manufacturing plant. But it’s a drop in the ocean for a country that urgently needs to diversify its energy landscape. 85 percent of South Africa’s electricity comes from the national provider Eskom’s coal-fired power stations. It may produce more electricity than any other African country but the grid has been under strain in recent years. According to the plan, 20 percent of South Africa’s energy should come from renewable sources by 2030.
But in a country so dependent on coal, green energy’s prospects come a distant second to nuclear power. France, Russia, China, South Korea and the United States are all in the running to build reactors capable of providing 9600 MW, a quantity impossible for renewables to match any time soon.
