20 August 2010 - Exxaro Resources Ltd., a coal miner in South Africa, said plans to list its energy unit are at a “very advanced” stage as it seeks funds to pursue projects in renewable power and gas.

“Let’s create this company with other investors because there’s lots of them that are interested,” Sipho Nkosi, chief executive officer of the Pretoria-based company, said in an interview. Energy projects “guzzle” cash and it wouldn’t be “prudent” to keep them on Exxaro’s balance sheet, he said.

19 August 2010 - Uncertainty over the standard power purchase agreement that will guide the sale of private power in SA is holding up Mainstream Renewable Energy SA’s R2,3bn 125MW wind farm near Jeffrey’s Bay in the Eastern Cape, a representative of the company said yesterday.

19 August 2010 - "Greenpeace's estimate that 78, 000 green jobs could be created is conservative," Glen Mpufane, who heads a development group, who joined a Greenpeace forum on green jobs on Wednesday.

Unemployment is around 25 percent in South Africa, which was hard hit by the global recession.

Environmental groups in South Africa are campaigning for a major move toward renewable energy rather than nuclear and coal energy.

18 August 2010 - Hydropower which is one of the cleanest sources of energy remains untapped by most of the continent, says the Department of Energy.

Speaking at the 3rd annual Hydropower Africa Conference on Tuesday, department's Director-General Nelisiwe Magubane said according to experts the potential for hydropower is in excess of a hundred thousand megawatts.

18 August 2010 - Countries in the MENA region with little or no oil and gas deposits are endowed with abundant sunlight and sparsely occupied land – resources that could make the region a renewable energy powerhouse.

The World Bank is providing Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria with a total of US$5.5 billion (Dh20.2bn) in funding for solar projects to be completed by 2015. The projects’combined electricity generation capacity of 9,000 megawatts would equal nearly the total installed power capacity of Abu Dhabi.

18 August 2010 - Camco, a South African based energy consultancy company, currently on a 6-months development study on Renewable Energy Feed-in Tariffs (REFIT) for Botswana has indicated that the project is expected to encourage and promote greater and effective private sector investment in power generation in the country.

13 August 2010 - Finance would not hold back the development of a renewable energy industry in SA but a conducive regulatory environment would, Solaire Direct Southern Africa MD Ryan Hammond said yesterday.

Mr Hammond's comments reinforce the view that financiers are ready to invest in viable renewable energy projects provided the National Energy Regulator of SA (Nersa) finalises a generic renewable energy feed-in tariff (Refit) power purchase agreement. That particular agreement will guide the relationship between an independent power producer and the buyer of electricity.

12 August 2010 - Leading independent renewable energy group, Wind Prospect, today announced its intention to open a new office in South Africa and immediately set its sights on becoming the number one service provider to the African wind market by 2012.

Since launching its Developer Services business in 2009, Wind Prospect has opened offices in emerging markets across Europe including most recently Turkey and Poland.