Sweden, South Africa Discuss Clean Energy

The Swedish Trade Council and the South African government are set to discuss implementing a "clean energy" way of life in South Africa.

The two will be discussing skills development, technology, transfer, infrastructure development, and trade. The Swedish Trade Council senior project manager Mikael Edholm said it was an attempt to find a global solution to climate change in which Africa is reported to have been hit the hardest.

“Climate change is one of the most critical global challenges of our time. A major problem for South Africa is the lack of technological solutions around the area of environmental care. However, South Africa is in the process of enhancing legislation to curb this problem. Sweden has vast knowledge and experience in this field and it is hoped that these discussions will highlight these global challenges, and will provide an opportunity for knowledge exchange and business opportunities for both Swedish and South African companies,” says Edholm.

In addition to formalized skills development programs, joint ventures between South African and Swedish companies are another option to further skills development.

He adds that, within this framework, Nutek has developed a showcase, called Demo-Environment, which provides authorities, municipalities, institutions, and companies in some 40 countries with an opportunity to become familiar with new technologies. Small and medium-sized companies are offered support for pilot studies, project identification, and project development.

Over the past two years, the Demo-Environment program has provided more than R6.5 million to projects undertaken by Swedish and South African companies in the clean energy sector.