Science and Innovation for Energy Security

Meeting report

Opening remarks
The Chairperson noted the Director General was attending a Square Kilometre Array board meeting. There were no apologies from the Minister and the Deputy Minister. He remarked that the Minister of Finance had a very difficult budget speech to deliver in the afternoon due to the economic conditions of the country.

Energy Security briefing
Mr Mmboneni Muofhe, Department Deputy Director-General: Technology Innovation, took Members through the presentation and highlighted that energy security has been a downward trend since 2007 and the country has now seen a much deeper downward dive with load-shedding occurring more frequently.

On energy equity, South Africa improved in providing access to energy to more people in the country. However, although the trend line increased over the years, it has been stagnant of late. The trend in environmental sustainability has seen an increase over the years due to the rise in greener or clean energy sources.

Energy equity has increased due to urbanisation. In most instances, when people erect informal dwellings, they set them up where it is virtually impossible to access water and electricity. That being the case, it obliterates the steady increase in the energy equity trend.

Mr Muofhe spoke about the partnerships established by the Department on energy security initiatives and hydrogen products in the pipeline. Some of the projects included work completed in partnership with the South African Post Office (SAPO) and the University of Stellenbosch on e-scooters that will soon be launched. The scooters would be used for delivery. New research work has taken place after the initial phase. The new battery installed on the scooters will now travel many more kilometres compared to the previous battery.

Some of the key stakeholders mentioned included Hydrogen South Africa, Omnia, German government, international companies, Department of Mineral Resources, CSIR, South African Post Office, University of Venda, University of Stellenbosch, and the Research Councils.

Discussion
Dr W Boshoff (FF+) commented on the number of projects that the Department was working on and commended it for its work in partnership with other stakeholders. He suggested that the Committee should make time and visit the Cape Town facilities.

Mr T Letsie (ANC) said that in previous engagements, the Department indicated that South Africa was not utilising solar power to the best of its ability. He wanted to know why that was the case in South Africa while other countries, such as Germany, are taking it seriously. There are issues about independent power producers (IPPs) but Germany was one of the countries that partnered with small companies within that space.

Secondly, the Solar Power project was a ten year plan and he wanted to know the key outcome during that period taking into account the current year. He asked for both the achievements and for what the Department failed to achieve during that period.

Ms N Mkhatshwa (ANC) was happy about the projects that the Department has partnered on with the University of Venda. This speaks to how geographical proximity must be dismantled. Accessibility in universities that are considered to be on the periphery is crucial. The Committee would not want to see only students from Universities of Stellenbosch and Pretoria getting opportunities from the Department compared to the not so popular universities.

The work done by the Department needs to trickle down to the micro parts of our communities, in fact, as far as primary level in the Basic Education space; this also includes the representation of black women. Science and technology is predominantly enjoyed or accessible to people who were the beneficiaries of the previous regime. Children need to be encouraged to access science and technology from a young age.

Ms J Mananiso (ANC) suggested that the Department needs to be more specific on the work it does in partnership with the Departments of Health and Basic Education. This will assist Members to visit some of the projects taking place in their constituencies. She asked if all this science information was translated into indigenous languages to ensure that it was accessible to all citizens.

Responses
Mr Muofhe responded that the Department would be excited to facilitate such visits for Members. The scooters in partnership with the SAPO are ready and they are very quiet in terms of noise pollution. The manufacturing of the scooters took place at the University of Stellenbosch. Hopefully, the powering of 200 households will start demonstrating the up-scaling of these technologies in providing electricity.

The initial investment for solar energy is very high but the advantage is that the excess can be sold to the service provider or the grid. This encourages the deployment of solar power. When the subsidy programme was initiated for solar power water heaters, there was an uptake. Using only solar power for the hot water geyser, one can cut one's electricity consumption by a third.

The bulk of the targets the Department had set were achieved. The only outstanding target was the capturing of the market. This was because the earlier approach was not working and the Department realised that it would need to partner with global original equipment manufacturer (OEMs). The Department has managed to achieve its targets and localise the whole technology development space and ensure that the products get to the market. The third phase of this will be initiated this year.

On geographical spread, the Department has taken some deliberate actions on this matter. Unless one deliberately targets to improve the geographical spread, the problems faced persist. The plan is to ensure that institutions are positioned through information about the Department plans so they can start preparing their state of readiness to make use of the partnerships that the Department seeks to initiate with them.

The Department has targeted the involvement of women in the science and technology space. The percentage of women sits at about 33%. Women are also driven to other government funding projects.

It has been discovered recently that the matter of indigenous languages is doable. In the outreach programmes, the excitement comes from even the older people. If they can look at this in their own languages, it would be very informative. The Department would need to work towards getting this done with its outreach partners.

Dr Rebecca Maserumule, Department Chief Director: Hydrogen and Energy, commented on indigenous languages saying that the Department worked closely with the National Language Service to translate questionnaires for research purposes into indigenous languages. This could be up-scaled. The National Languages Service actually did the translation for the Department for free.

In looking at CO2 emissions, the Department works with a number of stakeholders both locally and internationally. The plan now is to partner with the global chemical group, Omnia, in the country and it is now adding a new product to the product line. Government departments such as the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and the Department of Environmental Affairs have issued a letter of endorsement on the air quality project in Mpumalanga. Through this partnership, the Paris Agreement on the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions could actually be achieved. Producing iron and steel requires a lot of carbon burning as part of the chemical processing.

The Department also opened a conversation with the Department of Minerals and Energy on its commitments around energy security. There is a partnership with Hydrogen South Africa on the production of green hydrogen to sell green chemicals.

There is also renewable hydrogen partnership with a company based in Luxemburg and two companies and research councils in Germany. The German government has funds for research projects in South Africa and an application has now been submitted for millions in funding. The application has gone through the first phase of the process.

Dr Rebecca Maserumule said that spatial diversity is to ensure that the Department plays a critical on the continent.

The reason the Department has not achieved all of its targets in the Hydrogen South Africa project is because the hydrogen global economy has grown slower than expected. A review was done about three years ago and we have an actual revenue potential of about R300 million. Without the right partnerships we may not achieve that R300 million target by 2024/25.

A lot of the projects that the Department now embarks on for power generation are based in the rural areas. This is motivated by the fact that when there are power outages in rural areas, there are complete black outs unlike in the urban spaces and cities where people can still access retail stores for consumption.

The Chairperson thanked the Department for the good work that it has been doing.

The meeting was adjourned.