CEF (Pty) Ltd, in association with a BEE partner, has launched a new company to produce electricity from wood waste in the Southern Cape, as part of broader endeavours to contribute towards national energy security.

The R130 million bio-energy project in which CEF has partnered with a company called Carbon and Environmental Options (Pty) Ltd (C&EO), is to be driven by a special purpose vehicle named CCE Energy Solutions (Pty) Ltd (CCE).

CCE will develop and operate the plant at George in the Southern Cape.

The project will create nearly 200 skilled and unskilled jobs during the construction phase, which will start in July 2007. Commissioning of the plant is scheduled for June 2008.

It is estimated that a minimum of 50 000 tonnes of wood waste will be available for the project and will generate up to 8 MW of electrical power. Income will be generated from the sale of electricity to local municipalities and other parties, and also from the derived Certified Emissions Reductions (CER's).

C&EO specializes in the development of alternative and renewable energy projects. The company recognized an opportunity to utilize wood waste for the co-generation of bio-energy in the Southern Cape.

CEF (Pty) Ltd is a market leader in the quest for alternative and renewable energy solutions to assist in addressing the country's power concerns.

"The project offers exciting opportunities,'' said Mr. Mputumi Damane, Group CEO of CEF (Pty) Ltd.

"It will utilize existing technology to produce electricity from a renewable energy source, i.e. wood waste. It will create employment, encourage public-private partnerships and it is indeed a CDM (Clean Development Mechanism) initiative."

Biomass (which is plant material, vegetation or agricultural waste used as a fuel or energy source) has been earmarked as a significant contributor to the government's renewable energy target of 10 000GWh. The projections indicate that by 2013 the project would have contributed 350GWh of clean energy towards the set target.

"The technology to be used in this project is sound and is currently being used in South Africa for similar applications," said Mr. Damane.

"It may also be ‘uplifted', and if at any stage there is for some reason a decline in feedstock, then some or all of the modular Fluidised Bed Combustion System could be moved anywhere in the country where biomass or suitable waste feedstock is available,"  he said.

The feedstock supply risk is minimal and should there be a severe decline or termination of the feedstock during the next 10 years, the process equipment could then be moved to an area where waste is abundant.

Editor's Note:

CEF (Pty) Ltd is a private company incorporated in terms of the Companies Act. It controls entities in the energy sector with commercial, strategic, regulatory and developmental roles, housed in six operating subsidiaries. These are PetroSA (the Petroleum Oil and Gas Corporation of South Africa), iGAS (the South African Gas Development Company), Petroleum Agency SA, Oil Pollution Control SA, the Strategic Fuel Fund Association and the South African National Energy Research Institute (Saneri). Among other corporate functions, CEF (Pty) Ltd manages the Central Energy Fund on behalf of the Government.