A CSP plant in Port Augusta would improve local health, says Australian environment group

The Conservation Council of South Australia (CCSA), one of the country’s most important environment groups, says the need for solar thermal power in Port Augusta is an urgent health issue, as well as one that has significant climate change implications.

CCSA’s chief executive Craig Wilkins said a solar thermal plant at Port Augusta “would not only help with jobs but improve local health,” during an interview with ABCNews.

Mr. Wilkins said Port Augusta residents had suffered the health impacts of coal for decades. "We've got a dirty industrial plant which could be transferred to a cleaner technology," he added.

Acciona and Sener to build the Kathu CSP plant in South Africa

Acciona SA and engineering company Sener Ingenieria y Sistemas SA will build a 100 MW parabolic trough plant in South Africa for GDF Suez. The facility will be located in the town of Kathu, in the Northern Cape Province, they said in a joint statement last week.

The Kathu project is owned by a group of companies led by GDF Suez. The project has been selected under the South African Department of Energy’s Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP). The investment is estimated to be in the region of EUR 500 million.

The plant will have an integrated molten salt-based storage system, which will provide 4.5 hours of storage capacity. It will start operating in 2018 and will provide power for 80,000 homes, they said.

For both companies, this is their second solar thermal project in South Africa, after their 50 MW Bokpoort plant, in Upington, which is expected to come online in late 2015.

South Africa's Eskom gets US $339 million loan from KfW to upgrade grid 

South African utility Eskom Holdings has received a 4 billion rand ($339 million) loan from KfW to help modernise its power grid, said the German development bank on 8 April 2015.

The loan will be used to connect solar and wind power plants to Eskom's power network, “whose expansion and maintenance has lagged behind in recent years, resulting in power failures and fluctuations in supply,” the KfW said.

The funding will support the connection of two renewable energy projects financed by KfW: the Kiwano Solar Power Plant, a 100 MW CSP tower project in Upington, which received a $100 million loan, and the Ingula Pumped Storage Scheme in Braamhoek, co-financed by KfW IPEX-Bank, which was granted a EUR 75 million loan.

Integrating more renewable sources of energy into the grid will also help reduce South Africa's C02 emissions “by up to 5.5 million tonnes per year”, the KfW said.

While clean energy investment hits lowest level for two years globally, in India and South Africa it surges

A report published by Bloomberg last week reveals global clean energy investment in the first quarter of this year fell to its lowest level for two years, as large deals slowed in China, Europe and Brazil.

Investment in renewable energy such as wind, solar power and biomass fell to $50.5 billion in January to March compared with $59.3 billion in same quarter last year, the report said.

However, the paper notes that the first quarter tends to be the weakest in terms of clean energy investment as banks and equity investors pause after a busy year-end and as project developers digest any changes in renewable energy support mechanisms.

But this year the strengthening of the U.S. dollar against many currencies also impacted financing. Geographically, clean energy investment in Brazil fell by 62% to $1.1 billion compared with the first quarter of last year.

Conversely, clean energy investment in South Africa surged to $3.1 billion from almost nothing in the first quarter last year, and investment in India rose by 59% to $1.6 billion.