The Department of Environmental Affairs is looking to ensure the release of the $500-million approved by the international Clean Technology Fund (CTF), for a list of low-carbon energy projects in South Africa.

The CTF is a vehicle to finance programmes that will reduce long-term greenhouse gas emissions. The fund is administered by the World Bank group

The South Africa plan includes using CTF financing for:

• The reduction of the high capital cost associated with the construction and operation of Eskom's proposed 100-MW concentrated solar power project, planned for Upington in the Northern Cape.
• The development of the first utility-scale wind power plant, consisting of a 100-MW Eskom wind farm in the Western Cape Province Wind Energy Facility.
• Pioneering private sector wind projects of a further 100 MW and creating a robust pipeline of large-scale wind projects.
• Supporting municipalities and the private sector in the deployment of solar water heaters (SWHs), with a target of achieving 50% of the South African government goal of converting one-million households from electric geysers to SWHs over five years.
• Scaling up energy efficiency investments by catalysing the expansion of bank lending to the commercial and industrial sectors through lines of credit to commercial banks and addressing barriers to energy -efficiency investments.

Reported by Engineering News