South Africa
Delegate:
Dr Thembakazi Mali , SANERI.
Alternate: Mr. Terence Govender, Eskom Corporate Services Department
The summary in this section was provided by Thembakazi Mali, SANERI
South Africa has a significant wave energy resource, in the order of 40-50 kW/m, and the Agulhas current is estimated to flow between 1-2 m/s in some places.
The major barrier to exploiting ocean energy is the lack of regulations in South Africa to facilitate the development of ocean energy projects.
National research programmes in renewable energy, including ocean energy, have been conducted, with limited support by the South African National Energy Research Institute (SANERI) for ocean energy.
Research & Development
Eskom, the SA national power utility, has been investigating the possibility of using ocean energy technologies as part of the Eskom generation mix since 2003. To date, resource assessments have been completed for wave and ocean currents energy and progress on international developments has been assessed.
At Stellenbosch University there is a research group active, which was formed in the eighties as part of the Ocean Engineering Research Group8 to investigate ocean energy.
Other key institution is the Department of Oceanography at the University of Cape Town9, conducting research into ocean currents and temperature and its effect on Climate Change.
There are no demonstration projects yet in South Africa.
The Agulhas current stream off the eastern coast of South Africa
8 http://www.crses.sun.ac.za
9 www.sea.uct.ac.za
Related links
