BBC: Government needs proper plan for replacing coal-fired power plants
The Black Business Council (BBC) said that the government needed a proper plan for replacing coal-fired power stations.
BBC president, Elias Monage, said that while the council was not opposed to renewable energy options, they were not an immediate solution to ending power cuts.
The National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) has echoed these sentiments.
They were speaking on the sidelines of the African National Congress (ANC)’s a national conference at Nasrec on Sunday, after Minerals and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe was a no-show after a late night of leadership nominations.
The Black Business Council said that if the government could seal a deal with the controversial floating gas-fired power plants, Karpowership, rolling blackouts could be averted.
Monage said that a sustainable supply was necessary to invite money into the economy.
“We can not rely on solar in terms of running various industries. You can’t run a foundry, you can’t run an engineering operation, relying on solar, relying on wind. That is some of the issues we’ve raised,” Monage said.
The NSBE said that although it recognized the need for the country to reduce its carbon footprint, renewable options were not an immediate solution to the electricity shortage.
The society’s president, Mdu Mlaba: “At this juncture, we have no choice but to deal with our coal fleet because that’s our base load. We do not yet, at this stage in terms of renewable energy, have the storage capacity to rely on renewable energy for base load.”
Mlaba said that Eskom needed a qualified engineer at the helm to deal with the country’s power crisis.
-EWN
In other news – The reason why TT Mbha and Somizi are no longer best friends
Mzansi media personality and businessman, Somizi Mhlongo and TT Mbha were once joined on the hip but it seems that their friendship which was once everyone’s envy has gone sour and TT Mbha says that he does not know what changed.
According to a local publication, the Mzansi Cribs host took to his Instagram in a since-deleted post and said, “My wife just sent me this pic from two years ago today and I honestly didn’t know how to respond to her because so much has changed in the past two years. Learn More
