The formation of an industry association for the clean development mechanism, rebates on biofuels levies and the promotion of small businesses for exporting renewable energy technologies were some of the salient issues covered by the Energy Development Corporation's second roundtable, held on 3 April 2007 in Johannesburg.

About 150 delegates attended the one-day conference, which had four sessions: Perspectives on Biofuels, Perspectives on Solar Energy, Clean Development Mechanism, and Renewable Energy Financing.

In his opening speech Mputumi Damane, group chief executive officer of CEF, said the roundtable was an ideal platform for investigating issues in the rapidly growing renewable energy (RE) sector.

The core mission of CEF was to promote and facilitate the development of cleaner and more affordable alternative energy solutions, grounded in the conviction that the growth of the renewable energy sector had the potential to stimulate significant economic activity and to provide affordable and reliable energy for all.

Damane said CEF had been a leader in creating major corporate entities in the oil sector, from Sasol to PetroSA, and that today the organisation was positioning itself to play a similar catalytic role in the sphere of RE.

In the first session, Perspectives on Biofuels, Sandile Tyatya, the chief director of clean energy in the Department of Minerals and Energy (DME), delivered a presentation entitled, "The draft national biofuels strategy: The process, from inception to realisation. The Biofuels sector development in South Africa: Where to from here?"

He said that more than 200 submissions had been made on the draft biofuels strategy. The DME estimated that over 55 000 jobs would be created by the emerging biofuels sector, but it now had to meet the costs of developing the biofuels and the production plants.

Tyatya added that the industry would be competing with food markets in sugarcane, sugar beets, sorghum, wheat and maize, and cautioned that this may affect food prices. The government might increase incentives to the industry in the final strategy.

Dr John Purchase, the general manager of Grain SA, presented a paper entitled "Feedstock security of grain and oil-seeds: Comments on the draft industrial strategy for biofuels", in which he drew attention to the threat posed by the regular droughts South Africa experienced.

Bioethanol production was being boosted by the concerns about reliance on fossil fuels, said Adrian Wayne, the deputy director of industrial affairs at the South African Cane Growers Association. In his paper, "Potential uses of bioethanol: Comments on the draft industrial strategy for biofuels," he called for further support for the industry in terms of competitive production inputs, appropriate process technology, the development of a viable market and an effective value chain.

Remi Burdairon, the chief executive officer at Louis Dreyfuss Commodities, in his paper, "Energy commodity challenges in South Africa", pointed out that biofuel was a byproduct of feedstock production and that the country was a net importer of feedstocks for biofuel production.

Internationally biofuel production received much higher subsidies than those proposed in the draft strategy, he said.

The second session, Perspectives on Solar Energy, projects were discussed that drew a lot of interest from delegates. Nadia Moosa, a project manager at the CEF, described the CEF/UNDP-GEF solar water heating SWH-500 pilot project.

Mari-Louise van der Walt, a senior project manager at Eskom, outlined the successes and challenges of Eskom's solar water heating project and its commitment to exploring RE sources.

Jason Schaffler, the managing director at Nano Energy Progress, presented a paper entitled "Towards the voluntary RE target with particular reference to solar". There was a general consensus on the need to boost this market and that the CEF had made significant progress in this regard insofar as it had engaged with financial institutions to set up micro-credit facilities for low-income earners to pay off solar water heating over a long term.

Session three, on the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), was well attended.

Andrew Gilder, from IMBEWU Enviro-Legal Specialists, delivered a paper on "The international climate regime and commercial aspects of CDM"; Anton-Louis Olivier, a director at NuPlanet SA, spoke on "Matching CDM to project cycles: CDM risks to project developers - a case study"; and Marba Visagie, the deputy director for technical infrastructure in the Department of Trade and Industry, spoke on "The establishment of the South African CDM Association: Why is it necessary?"

Delegates were concerned about the long delays between the initiation of a project and its being passed by the designated national authority; there was also strong support for the formation of an industry association to overcome hurdles.

Many other countries have such an association and Visagie said that there was an initiation meeting last month for the formation of a Clean Development Mechanism Industry Association. The positive response from the floor was an encouragement to pursue the matter.

There were three presentations in the final session, on Renewable Energy Financing. Saliem Fakir, the associate director of the Centre for Renewable and Sustainable Energy Studies, outlined the development barriers and financial constraints facing RE in the context of cheap coal-fired electricity.

There was a lot of interest from participants in the model presented by Rian Coetzee, the head of food, beverage and agro-industries in the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC), entitled "Financing biofuels".

He spoke about the collaboration between the CEF and the IDC on biofuels projects.

"He explained how the model is a strategic arrangement that is working well because we are sharing our strengths: the CEF has the energy expertise and the IDC has project management experience," said the CEF's Sibusiso Ngubane, who chaired the session.

Glynis Harrison, a trade adviser on special projects at the Johannesburg Chamber of Commerce and Industry, explained how the chamber was trying to create an enabling environment for SMEs manufacturing RE technologies to move towards exporting these.

She also encouraged small and medium enterprises to approach the chamber.