Gauteng, a province in South Africa, is making the move towards renewable energy in order to take the pressure off the struggling national energy grid. This was announced on Tuesday at the Africa Energy Indaba in Sandton by the province’s infrastructure development MEC, Nandi Mayathula-Khoza.
She spoke about the government plans on implementing many initiatives across different sectors and was developing targets for different sources of energy. These included short-term projects such as solar energy and energy from landfills which she said will be implemented on at a provincial and municipal level.
Parts of the proposed projects are already happening as solar water heaters are being rolled out to municipalities and solar street and traffic lights are being introduced. The government has also started a process of making sure that boilers used in hospitals are using natural gas and not coal.
“These are some of the programs we are embarking on to make that little contribution to the challenge we are facing in this country,” Mayathula-Khoza said. “This country is open for business and equally so we are ready to trade with Africa and the world.”
Photo Credit: Black Rock Solar via Compfight cc
