What a great week this has been, which actually began over the past weekend with a quick trip to George in catching up F2F with our team on the west coast here in South Africa. I cant thank Jonathan Mundell and Nobuhle Dambile Mundell for the hospitality and quick tour; the Outeniqua Pass is a sight to behold that's for sure 🏞
As I was attending a conference in Cape Town I drove from George in taking in the full Garden Route experience and aside from the beauty of the land I noticed a few other things by way of development on the energy front, which perfectly aligned with my attendance at the inaugural Solar & Storage Live Cape Town. For one, solar installations litter the landscape and are testament to the shift toward more sustainable living. Another is the investment made into wind farms in capturing on the potential of this, and I was lucky enough to drive past the Excelsior Wind Farm in Swellendam and that too is a sight to see.
When I finally arrived in Cape Town my observations on the drive hit home at the conference. The innovations in the renewables space have moved leaps and bounds in recent years in parallel to the growth of uptake. All topics covered perfectly aligned with the key questions that needed answers going forward including:
- How to establish a regional supply chain for solar power
- How to be cyber secure
- How the financial services sector can play a role
- How industrial consumers can likewise play a role in grid flexibility
- What the City of Cape Town is doing in setting-up SSEGs
- Battery storage systems and how to flexibly connect these to grids
- The role that traditional leaders can play in generating uptake in rural areas
- And last but certainly not least, the significant contribution that EVs can add to the energy transition in the long-term – I really enjoyed the discussion myself, Hiten Parmar, Nicholas Brooks, Prian Reddy and Melusi Tshabalala (MBA, M.Inst.D) had on the topic in debunking myths and highlighting the potential in this space, particularly in terms of value-creation in the local automotive industry
One of the standouts was my engagement sessions at the roundtable discussions with those working on the ground making all of the above happen. We covered critical topics including how to be thinking about fire and safety regulations, and how to best manage and work around the loadshedding schedule employed by Eskom in managing demand as we move through the Just Energy Transition.
With all of the above said I’d like to also thank the Solar & Storage Live Africa team for once again including myself and In On Africa (IOA) in the discussions. The conference was a great experience and the first of many to come in Cape Town; we are all about connecting the potential!
PS. I couldn’t help myself and took a selfie with the Duracell bunny 😊
#SolarStorageCapeTown #RenewableEnergy #ElectricVehicles #SustainableDevelopment #ConnectingAfricasPotential
