Substantial obstacles, including multiple legal challenges, render SA’s coal IPPs unlikely to go ahead.

The draft Integrated Resource Plan for Electricity (the IRP) is a significant improvement on the 2016 draft, and many were relieved to see a decision on future nuclear energy pushed out until 2030.

But others, including the Life After Coal Campaign (consisting of Earthlife Africa, the Centre for Environmental Rights, and groundWork) and Greenpeace Africa, have slammed the inclusion of 1,000MW of new coal-based electricity. This power is planned to come from two independent power producer (IPP) coal-fired power stations – Thabametsi (557MW), largely owned by Japan’s Marubeni and South Korea’s KEPCO, proposed near Lephalale; and Khanyisa (306MW), proposed near eMalahleni, with the Saudi-owned ACWA Power, its biggest shareholder.

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http://www.businessinsider.com/top-25-renewable-energy-companies-thomson-reuters-2017-11

The explosive growth of renewable energy has shaken up the energy industry over the last decade.

As the costs of solar and wind continue to fall and bottlenecks like storage capacity are diminished, the International Energy Agency predicts that renewable energy will comprise 40% of global power generation by 2040. In the next five years, the share of electricity generated by renewables worldwide is set to grow faster than any other source.

Last week, Thomson Reuters released its inaugural Energy 100 list, which evaluates companies in the sector (both traditional and renewable) based on eight criteria, including innovation, environmental impact, social responsibility, and risk management. The top companies go “beyond the balance sheet,” according to the report — in addition to their solid financials, they have created advanced sustainability programs, developed groundbreaking technologies, and benefited their surrounding communities.

Thomson Reuters created a sub-list of the top 25 renewable energy companies, which are generally smaller and younger than the energy giants on the main list. Eight of them are based in China, Hong Kong, or Taiwan.

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http://www.businessinsider.com/top-25-renewable-energy-companies-thomson-reuters-2017-11

Doranova from Finland has teamed up with Binh Duong Water Supply Sewerage Environment Co., Ltd. (BIWASE) to implement the second phase of a waste-to-energy project in Vietnam. In the first phase, another Finnish company provided waste separation lines on the same site.

According to Mikko Saalasti, head of renewable energy at Doranova, Vietnam delivered one of the largest projects Doranova has ever undertaken – a 35,000-tonne waste-to-energy plant worth €6 million ($6.95 million), currently under development on the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City.

“This project is expected to reduce the city’s landfill, as well as provide additional power generation options for Vietnam’s largest metropolis to draw from.  Our bio-gas plant will further assist Vietnam to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions,” Saalasti said.

Specifically, Doranova will collect gas discharged from landfills, clean it, and use cogeneration to produce both electricity and useful heat. It will collect landfill gases at a maximum level of 500 cubic metres (m3) per hour. The project kicked off early this year, and is slated for completion by April 2018.

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http://english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/environment/190236/two-birds–one-stone-in-waste-to-energy-sector.html

Demonstrating the latest smart home energy solution by installing more than 1000 units in homes and businesses in ten countries, the ene.field project has successfully trialed the biggest fleet of fuel cell  micro-cogeneration in Europe to date.  Its successor project, PACE, aims at bringing costs down: but manufacturers and users say, the technology is market-ready.

“I thought it would be nice to have my own power plant,” says Jochen Steneberg, a participant in the ene.field project field trial. A demonstration project for fuel cell micro-cogeneration, the ene.field project was funded to the tune of €52.5 million, with matching contributions from industry and the Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking (FCH JU), a public private partnership supporting research, technological development and demonstration activities in fuel cell and hydrogen energy technologies in Europe.

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http://www.decentralized-energy.com/articles/2017/11/fancy-having-your-own-power-plant-fuel-cell-micro-cogeneration-is-market-ready.html

The new plant that will burn natural gas to produce power and heat will be a joint venture between NIS, majority owned by Russia’s Gazprom Neft, and Gazprom Energoholding, a subsidiary of Russian gas giant Gazprom, in which the two firms will hold 49 and 51 percent stake respectively.

It is estimated to cost 180 million euros ($210 million), NIS said in a statement.

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https://www.reuters.com/article/serbia-nis-energy/chinese-group-signs-deal-to-build-200-mw-cogeneration-plant-in-serbia-idUSL8N1N6639

Business and financial news company Bloomberg has officially opened its £1 billion (AU$1.72b) European HQ in London, a building it has labelled the world’s most sustainable.

The Foster + Partners-designed HQ is spread across two 10-storey buildings on a 3.2-acre (13,000 square metre) site, and will consolidate 4000 London-based staff, with room for 6500.

Part of the “world’s most sustainable” claim comes from a BREEAM sustainability assessment score of 98.5 per cent, the highest ever design-stage score achieved by a large-scale office.

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https://www.thefifthestate.com.au/innovation/building-construction/new-bloomberg-hq-labelled-worlds-greenest-building