As South Africa continues to surge in renewable energy ventures, in part thanks to its Renewable Energy Independent Power Producers Program (REIPPP), there is still one area that it has yet to conquer: waste-to-energy (W2E).
South Africa’s Department of Environmental Affairs stated that the country generates around 60-70 million cubic meters of waste annually – which indicates a huge potential for the W2E sector. However, South Africa is fairly new to the game only implementing its first W2E project in 2007.
One project that is making headway is the SLR South African Waste Project which uses two landfill sites to make energy, adding 6.5 MW into the local grid powering 40,000 homes. Companies like Sasol, MTN, and ABSA are transforming a wide range of waste into “syngas” which can be used in gas engines to generate cleaner transportation fuels like diesel and jet fuel. One company supplying the technology for such projects is GE with its Jenbacher model.
Projects are cropping up, but W2E in South Africa is not getting half as much attention as other alternative forms of energy, but the potential is great.
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