Big plans to fight climate change
N EW “green industry” projects have been announced by KwaZulu-Natal Premier Zweli Mkhize as part of a plan to reduce the impact of climate change.
The projects include a new R5.4 million biodiesel plant at the Isithebe industrial park near Mandeni, the installation of 30 000 solar water heaters on eThekwini home rooftops before 2015 and plans for a major sugar industry project to generate 900MW of electricity from sugar cane biomass.
The University of KwaZuluNatal has also begun a fouryear research project to investigate the local implications of a national carbon trading scheme and a detailed carbon footprint analysis of moving cargo from Durban to Gauteng, by rail or road.
Mkhize made the announcement in Pietermaritzburg this week at the inaugural meeting of the KZN Climate Change Council.
The council will be chaired by Mkhize and includes all 10 provincial MECs, 13 provincial government department heads, four university academics, 13 business representatives, six parastatal bodies, nine civic, union, church or traditional leaders, and 11 civil society or environmental groups.
Noting that the national government aimed to produce 27 percent of the energy demand from renewable energy projects before 2030, Mkhize said the KZN environment department had launched a study that aimed to discourage sugar farmers from burning cane crops every year and releasing large volumes of greenhouse gases. Instead it would investigate “green harvesting” methods in which sugar biomass would be collected and burned to generate electricity.
“The sugar industry has vast potential to create renewable energy from its mills in KZN. The SA Sugar Association has predicted that it can produce about 900MW of renewable energy by 2020,” he said.
Mkhize said the National Treasury and Department of Energy were considering plans to include sugar in the biomass renewable energy bidding process.
Elsewhere in the province, a new waste collection facility was being planned for the Hammarsdale and Mpumalanga areas to create a “recycling industry cluster” to create jobs to replace those lost through the large-scale closure of textile industries over the past decade.
In Pietermaritzburg, the German Development Bank was funding a feasibility study for a R10 million organic waste treatment facility at the Msunduzi landfill site. In Ixopo, the Department of Public Works had almost finished a R20m low-energy “green building”.