In December this year the UN Climate Conference takes place in Paris. Ahead of the summit, we will release a series of stories, titled "Earthprints," that show the ability of humans to impact change on the landscape of the planet. From sprawling urban growth to the construction of new islands, each site has profoundly changed in the last 30 years. Each story has accompanying … [Read more...]
The time is now for SA’s energy revolution
It's time to look up, not down, for South Africa's energy solution, says The African Climate Reality Project. In an apparent state of conflict over its energy policies, South Africa flounders as a victim of load shedding in the grip of Eskom’s continued reliance upon coal and now also must seriously review its ‘intended nationally determined contribution’ (INDC) and declare … [Read more...]
Next decade decisive for Earth’s future
The next 10 years will be decisive when it comes to the planet's future - what we do (or don't) will play out over geologic time. It could, if we set our minds to it, be the decade when the planet's use of fossil fuels peaks and then rapidly declines. We've built a movement that, for the moment, is starting to tie down the fossil fuel industry: from the tar sands of … [Read more...]
Stellenbosch team may have solved crucial solar puzzle
It is a problem that has so far stumped even Google’s brainy engineers – how to generate cheap solar electricity using a small-scale array of mirrors to concentrate the sun’s energy. Now a team at a South African university – led by a former Intel strategic planner – believes they have cracked it. Once they have completed a prototype system in October they have big plans for … [Read more...]
Fight against Limpopo coal power station raises water issues
Earthlife Africa Johannesburg is determined to stop yet another coal-fired power station from being built in water-stressed Limpopo. Last month, attorneys in the Centre for Environmental Rights’ Pollution & Climate Change team filed further papers on behalf of environmental justice group Earthlife Africa Johannesburg in this battle. Under the National Environmental … [Read more...]
Electrifying Africa: the hunt for the off-grid solution
Worldwide 1.1 billion people continue to live without access to electricity. More than 95% of those without access to electricity live in sub-Saharan Africa and developing Asia. While progress is being made, rapid population growth continues to challenge that progress. Perhaps needless to say but the most significant depravation is amongst rural communities. The … [Read more...]
HOW TO SERIES PART 2: Going off the grid with solar
In Part 2 we get to grips with the different types of currents and how to install your batteries to store your solar energy. Alternating current (AC) is what you find in the power mains from a power utility. AC has a positive and neutral. Direct current (DC) has a positive and negative and is the power we find in a battery. In AC, the positive and neutral alternates 50 times … [Read more...]
HOW TO SERIES PART 1: How to go off the grid with solar
Today starts our new HOW TO SERIES – on demand by you our readers. How do we take our environmental footprints into our own hands and radically reduce our negative impact on the planet we hope to leave behind to our children in a liveable state? How do we adapt to the realities of the environmental crisis and live with reverence and joy? Every second week we will publish the … [Read more...]
New solar plants coming to sunny Northern Cape
Two new concentrating solar power (CSP) plants have been announced by the Department of Energy, to be built in the Northern Cape. Kathu Solar Park and Redstone Solar Thermal Power, which will both build 100MW capacity, were the preferred bidders in the third round of the government's Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP), the department … [Read more...]
How green is our city?
I thought that you might be interested in a green issue with the Cape Town City Council, writes our reader, Peter Brooks: Their CTCC is claiming to be green - and they are doing some good things, like supporting solar water heaters and large solar farms. City discouraging domestic PV generation However, they're doing their best, despite the capacity problems with Eskom, to … [Read more...]
Africa’s largest solar farm now fully operational
The Jasper solar farm, located near Kimberley in South Africa, is now the continent's largest solar power project. Construction was completed in October, and it is now fully operational (you can read that in the Star Wars emperor's voice). With a rated capacity of 96 megawatts, Jasper will produce about 180,000 megawatt-hours of clean energy annually for South African … [Read more...]
David Barnard beats Last Desert Race for solar energy
Thumbs up to David Barnard who completed the Last Desert Race 2014 on Antarctica today in good shape, determined to keep running for a good cause. "We returned to Deception Island (venue of stage 1), although in a different location for the 5th and final stage, due to extreme weather conditions in the Antarctic. We had to run a 2.8 km course for just over 4 hours and I was … [Read more...]
African innovations changing the world
With the rapid rate increase of information sharing, often bad news flies the fastest. I would rather hear good news. However, good news is sometimes hard to find. Especially when it relates to Africa. For example, good news would be how many tech entrepreneurs there are in Africa. Recently, when the Business Insider listed the top 100 female tech tweeters in Africa, only … [Read more...]
