SAB Miller, South African grown, second largest brewer in the world has introduced anaerobic digestion to treat the waste leaving its Alrode Brewery in Gauteng, South Africa. Anaerobic fermentation of organic material produces methane, which is used to reduce the consumption of fossil fuel based energy.

Copper brewhouse in a Trappist brewery
Brewery Waste & Biogas
In the brewery the waste is a collection of unavoidable losses of carbohydrate and protein rich materials, which would otherwise be sold as beer or byproduct and the large quantities of water used to maintain a hygienic operation.

There is sufficient availability of renewable energy sources to fulfil the world's need for electrical power. This was the consensus among speakers at the the International Solar Energy Society's (ISES) Solar World Congress.  They held that the technology, for the conversion of the various sources of renewable energy to electricity, is mature enough to implement.

Eskom, the South African state owned electricity generator, recently announced that it has budgeted a billion dollars over the next ten years for a demonstration and pilot concentrated solar power (CSP) plant. However, moving from budget to implementation is proving more difficult!

Why Concentrated Solar Power

Two of the widely used alternatives for collecting the suns energy are the concentrated solar power (CSP) plant where sunlight is focussed on a receiver in which a circulating working fluid is heated and used as the heating media for a conventional power station and the photo voltaic (PV) plant where sunlight is converted directly into electrical energy.

This positive report on the opportunities for Renewable Energy in South Africa is a starting point for a series of posts that will report on developments in and linked to the use of Renewable Energy in South Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa.

Where is Renewable Energy Going in South Africa?

An almost ten fold growth in revenue from renewable energy is predicted by business research and consulting firm Frost and Sullivan’s. This emerges from their Southern African Renewable Energy Equipment Market analysis, which sees the current renewable industry in South Africa having revenues of only $28.4 million in 2008 but projects a growth to over $250 million by 2015.

The biotechnology industry must be developed in South Africa and the region, to ensure the advancement of therapies for HIV and AIDS, Tuberculosis and other diseases, says Science and Technology Minister Naledi Pandor.

"This is a sector that we have to build and grow. We want to make South Africa one of the top 10 nations in the world in terms of the pharmaceutical, nutraceutical, flavour, fragrance and biopesticide industries by 2018," said the minister.

Speaking at the National Biotechnology Workshop in Pretoria on Thursday, Ms Pandor said the heavy burden of disease in southern Africa created the need for added impetus in searching for biotechnology solutions.

South Africa will continue to depend on coal for energy, Anglo Coal's CEO Ben Magara said on Wednesday.

He was addressing the Africa Mining Congress in Johannesburg.

"Both globally and regionally energy demand is increasing - so we're going to have to continue to burn coal.

"For us it's a challenge as to how clean we can burn that coal," Magara said.

He said after 2015 some power stations in South Africa would not only show signs of ageing, but the mines that supplied them with coal could be depleted.

"This will present a major opportunity for coal mining," he noted.

Anglo Coal was a major supplier of coal to Eskom.

Magara told the briefing he was excited about Anglo Coal's projects, especially the work being done around Lephalale in the Waterberg where the company's coal bed methane exploration site was located.

Article Continues: Cape Argus

The Department of Public Works on Tuesday said that it has completed the energy-efficiency retrofit of some 4 000 public buildings in South Africa, and was also taking seriously the challenge of water efficiency and recycling.

Addressing delegates at a green building convention in Sandton, Deputy Minister of Public Works, Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu, noted that the department needed assistance from green building professionals so that it could do more in this regard.

Integrating green building into the rehabilitation projects of public buildings, and facilities management thereof, was said to be a priority.

“We are in an era of renewal,” she said, referring to the new government administration, and added that this included the built environment, as the government sought to provide green and sustainable cities, human settlements and amenities.

She further noted that participating in green building, and making use of innovative green technologies would hopefully have the added benefit of creating so-called ‘green jobs’.

Over half of South Africans, if given a choice, would pick their fantasy car above a green environmentally friendly car, global market research firm Synovate says.

Synovate says a study showed that this is in comparison with 6 out of 10 people globally who would rather go green.

Synovate surveyed more than 13,500 people across 18 markets about ‘green’ versus ‘dream’ cars, vehicle ownership, intent to buy in the next year and attitudes towards cars, traffic, public transport and their need-for-speed.

South Africa-based Richard Rice, director of Global Motoresearch Sales & Marketing for Synovate, says that, in South Africa, the car is probably the closest product that comes to a visible expression of who a person is.

“Here a car is emotional. People love their cars… for the freedom, for the image they create, for what it says about their status. Consequently, that image is far more important than how environmentally friendly a car is.

Oudtshoorn — A new era of medicines tailored to suit the genetic profiles of specific populations could leave Africa behind, some of the continent's most respected geneticists are warning.

Developments in genetics will lead drug companies to design medicines that work best in populations with particular genetic profiles, says Charles Rotimi, a Nigerian and director of the US-based Center for Research on Genomics and Global Health.

But if Africa does not keep up with these developments its people will not receive drugs tailored for them, he says.

"We don't want a situation where, again, resources are in the hands of the privileged few. However, I do believe the world appreciates this must not be allowed to happen," Rotimi says.

Rotimi was speaking following the publication of a 10-year-long research study, to which he contributed, on the genetic diversity of African populations. The study, published in Science, compared genetic markers (sections of DNA that reveal the bearer's genetic heritage) between 121 African populations, four African-American populations and 60 non-African populations.

The result was the first large-scale genetic map of Africa, which revealed that it is the most genetically diverse continent - with 14 ancestral groups.

The researchers hope the work will kick-start research into genomics and biomedical research in Africa, says Sarah Tishkoff, of the US-based University of Pennsylvania. The data provide a base from which to discover the links between genes and susceptibility to disease in Africa as well as the genetic reasons for variability in responses to drugs.

Eskom halted its nuclear bidding programme for Nuclear -1 in December last year.  Now, due to amendments to the environmental legislation, which are in progress, Eskom has applied to Water and Environmental Affairs to “sequentially construct” three nuclear power plants.

They are asking to be allowed to combine authorisations to develop Nuclear-1, Nuclear-2 and Nuclear-3 power stations at all three coastal sites earmarked for the nuclear development programme.

The three sites are, the Koeberg site of Dynefontein 30 km north of Cape Town, Bantamsklip near Pearly Beach in the Overstrand, and Thyspunt near Oyster Bay, in the Eastern Cape.