MechChem Africa November-December 2020

⎪ PowerGen, PetroChem and sustainable energy management ⎪

Zutari has been extensively involved with the Kathu Solar Farm in the Northern Cape, which comprises 384 000 solar panels with single axis tracking to produce 100 MWp. Paul Nel predicts that solar energy will “definitely be” the energy of the future.

design, structural design and environmental impact studies,” he says. “While with Aurecon, one of the things I really enjoyed was doing all the design work for the large Australian Solar PV plants out of our office in Cape Town. And even though we are now separated from the global group, we remain a key design resource for our Australian colleagues,” he says. The energy mix of the future With regard to the future, Nel believes the energy landscape is changing at rapid rate. “I am feeling positive about the reaction of the government andEskomover past three years. Their narrative ismuchmore pro renewables, which is very encouraging. We will have to live with load shedding for a while yet, which doesn’t mean that Eskom is not on the right path. It simply shows it’s a big ship that is inherently slow to turn around,” he suggests. The current energy crisis, he believes, is driving positive change and our energy mix is going to look different and better in the future. Eskom has already announced its intention to decommission three of the older coal-firedpower stations, Komatie, Grootvlei and Camden. “In terms of replacements, the answer has to be renewables, with a healthy dose of gas in themediumtermtoprovide on- demand dispatchable power,” he says. While renewables are not yet dispatch- able, Nel says this is changing, with battery storage becoming far more available and affordable. Eskom itself is tendering for 1.4 gigawatt-hours of battery storage for instal- lation byDecember 2021. “Storagewill make renewables dispatchable, and that is thepoint we have to get to. While the costs of battery storage are not yet comfortably viable, it can already be justified for many projects: when distancemakes agridconnection toocostlyor

when the grid stability is poor, for example,” he explains. In a project in Madagascar, for example, Zutari is looking at ahybrid solution that com- bines solar PVwith battery storage and HFO (heavy fuel oil) generators. “We expect to see more and more of these hybrid solutions on the African continent, driven by customers’ immediate needs,” he tells MechChem Africa . Hybrid solutions, Nel argues, are interest- ing in that the sizes of the different compo- nents are constantly changing. As battery storage becomesmore accessiblewithbetter energy density and efficiency, it can take on a larger and larger share of the power short- fall, allowing the HFO generation side to be decreased. Such systems are alreadybeing in- stalled inamodularway so that PVgeneration and storage can be systematically expanded to minimise the use of the CO 2 -producing backup generator. “These systems can also be installed close to where the power is needed. With coal, gas or hydro, the generation usually has to be close the fuel source, which makes the trans- mission lossesmuchmore significant. InSouth Africa,thisisnotahugeissuebecausewehave a comprehensive distribution network, but in many countries inAfrica, the infrastructure is weak sohybriddistributed solutions are likely to grow,” Nel predicts. In SouthAfrica, Zutari is increasingly deal- ing with larger mining resource companies, which are looking to pivot their business model into the energy space. Nel says Zutari is able to assist such companies to become direct suppliers of energy, via connections to a local or the national grid. “There is definitely amarket for selling privately producedpower through a transmission grid. These aremostly solar based, which is suited to most places in Southern Africa. Wind is trickier and mostly

limited to coastal regions,” he says. He predicts that solar energy will “defi - nitely be” the energy of the future, for many reasons. It is the only energy resource that is off-planet; it is easy to install; few mov- ing parts – none if not coupled to single or dual-axis tracking systems; it is stationary; and, compared to boilers and turbines, low temperature. “Prices aregoingdownand lotsof research investment is going into efficiency improve - ments of solar panels and battery storage systems. 50 years from now, I believe solar could well be our dominant generation tech- nology,” Nel says. “For close to a decade now, we have been associated with some of the biggest renewable projects in Africa, and we are still involved in maintenance and advanced data analytics projects to optimise the perfor- mance of some of our first round REIPPPP projects. “We have also begun to automate our PV design process, reducing the amount of repetitive design work by using computa- tional techniques. Renewable technology is constantly being disrupted and we are part of that, which is very exciting. “Greater energy availability will drive development andwe expect to see the energy industry in Africa leap frog the prerequisite for large distribution and transmission net- works. Instead, local and smaller distributed generation systems canbe interlinked to form islanded solutions like the ‘cells’ of a cellular telephone network. This will create industry across Africa, I am sure of it. “We at Zutari are passionate about who we are and what we do. We belong here. It is where we feel most comfortable and we are very proud to be part of driving the growth of our continent,” Nel concludes. q

November-December 2020 • MechChem Africa ¦ 35