Village Life

17/02/2024

They don't get it, do they?

Eskom’s diesel budget for the current financial year is R29 billion, and by the beginning of January, it had already spent R25 billion.

03/11/2023

If I look at the totally
irrelevant crap that Google news, Youtube and Facebook with their AI recommend to me, I think humans still have the lead for now.

05/08/2023

I have posted this and am sharing this via the Village Life page towards hopefully assisting my lifelong friend Mare Mouton. Thank you for considering to assist. Alastair van Hiussteen

My name is Alastair  Morrison van Huyssteen. I am a lawyer and part-time singer-songwriter  from Bellville, Cape Town, Western Cape Province, Republic

03/08/2023

My wife Annalize, who published the magazine with me, passed away Friday, July 28, because of a lung infection. She made a name for herself especially for her historical research, but also wrote the regular food article and loved to write about special "ordinary" people. She established herself as an excellent photographer, with her work exhibited in Holland, Italy and Germany. Her book "Stanford 150: Portrait of a Village", stands as a landmark, and she had a huge impact on the local community. She will be sorely missed by many people.

05/07/2023

This week saw the hottest global temperature ever recorded, according to data from two climate tracking agencies.

04/07/2023

Not “new”, just back to the original.

It sounds like clickbait: How this one weird cow trick can improve soil, water, wildlife, and farmer wealth while pulling tons of planet-cooking carbon from the sky. But research has found grazing like buffalo has plenty of benefits.

27/05/2023

Moving in the right direction…

Investment in clean energy will extend its lead over spending on fossil fuels in 2023, the International Energy Agency said.

19/05/2023

24/04/2023

The Rufous Hummingbird is magical. The male's iridescent throat glows brighter than a shiny copper penny and like most hummingbirds, whizzes through the air curiously hovering right in front of humans who ponder them. The first time Mike Parr, president of the American Bird Conservancy, saw one, it....

12/04/2023

A boom in wind and solar has pushed the amount of electricity produced by renewable energy to record levels last year, according to a new analysis.

14/01/2023

The Idiot-in-Chief has spoken! It is so reassuring (not) to know that we have such a brilliant person in a position of power to fix all our problems…

With some 22 000MW sitting idle, the mining and energy minister claims some focused attention will bring quick results.

24/11/2022

Once the equipment is installed, paid for by private contractors, the energy itself is also free of charge...

Eskom CEO André de Ruyter has slammed critics of the utility's move towards renewables, away from coal, saying they want to keep SA stuck in the "Stone Age".

18/11/2022

https://www.pnas.org/post/journal-club/genome-extinct-blue-antelope-sequenced-10-000-year-old-fossil

Journal Club posts are short news stories featuring a recent important, timely journal article selected by one of our Journal Club panelists, who are postdocs and graduate students in NAS members’ labs.

18/11/2022

The writing is on the wall...

The Africa head of Ford said South Africa must deliver policy certainty on electric vehicles within six months to save its motor manufacturing industry.

10/11/2022

This looks promising. Hope they succeed.

Talesun has opened a new production facility with ARTsolar to manufacture high-efficiency, large-format PV modules. They said they might install a second 500 MW production line in the near future.

09/11/2022

Few people (and not all auto manufacturers) realise how fast the world is switching from internal-combustion-engined (ICE) vehicles to electric ones. The projection below suggests that the tipping point is only three years away! This will destroy the export market for South African-made vehicles, and lead to the bankruptcy of some or many of the world's oldest, biggest auto brands (my bet is on GM going first, but others will follow within the next ten years). And one day we'll wake up and there will be no more petrol and diesel fumes to smell!
(Graph from Bestin Tesla Youtube channel.)

05/11/2022

This guy keeps on going in the wrong direction, back to the old, dirty ways. Beyond dumb.

Shale gas exploration in the Karoo could soon become a reality. Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe says groundwork to start fracking has already been done.

01/11/2022

Another solar success story:

Historical wine estate, Vrede en Lust, became one of the first farms in South Africa to invest in solar power to shift away from Eskom and rising electricity prices, with plans now in place to upgrade its infrastructure over time.

01/11/2022

Oh no! Mantashe has an ally! If they started building a nuclear plant now, it probably won't be finished by the end of the century.

Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana says "old technologies", like gas and nuclear, can provide SA with reliable electricity.

31/10/2022

https://businesstech.co.za/news/energy/639309/eskom-is-converting-one-of-its-oldest-power-stations-into-a-major-new-solar-and-wind-energy-project/

After serving South Africa since 1961, the coal-fired Komati Power Station in Mpumalanga has today (31 October) reached the end of its operating life and has been shut down from midday.

30/10/2022

So much for "cheap" coal!

The more money Eskom spent to build and maintain power stations, and the more people it employed, the less power it produced.

22/10/2022

Slowly, slowly we are moving in the right direction. Bye-bye coal, bye-bye nuclear…

South Africa has been on a major push towards renewable energy as not only the national power utility fails to meet the people’s energy needs but the global community also encourages a shift away from fossil fuel reliance.

21/10/2022

Let's hope this leads to real action. At least Mantashe's coal-fired dreams didn't win the day.

South Africa’s cabinet has endorsed an investment plan to help the country transition away from the use of coal, a key step in securing $8.5 billion in climate finance on offer from the world’s richest nations.

08/10/2022

Mining giant Anglo American says it will form a new joint company with Electricite de France SA subsidiary EDF Renewables, named Envusa Energy, to develop a regional renewable energy ecosystem in South Africa.

20/07/2022

A bit of good news for darkest South Africa!

Norwegian renewable energy company Scatec has announced the start of construction at its three Kenhardt projects in the Northern Cape.

06/07/2022

Slowly, slowly the reality of the situation seems to be dawning on our dear government... At least the crisis is forcing us to move in the direction of renewables! https://www.news24.com/fin24/companies/govt-planning-commission-proposes-emergency-strategy-to-speed-up-new-solar-wind-plants-20220706

The National Planning Commission has called for an "energy emergency" to end load shedding within the next two years. The plan calls for the construction of 10,000MW of solar and wind power and 5,000MW of battery storage to be built urgently

07/06/2022

Some movement in the right direction: https://www.news24.com/fin24/economy/nersa-greenlights-16-new-renewable-energy-projects-within-19-days-20220607

The National Energy Regulator of South Africa has registered 16 more renewable energy generation projects, benefitting from the 100MW licence exemptions.