SUBSCRIBE TO TMCnet
TMCnet - World's Largest Communications and Technology Community

CHANNEL BY TOPICS


QUICK LINKS




South Africa Is Moving Towards Becoming A Manufacturer of Green Technology
Green Technology Featured Articles
November 18, 2013

South Africa Is Moving Towards Becoming A Manufacturer of Green Technology

By Tammy Marie Rose
TMCnet Contributing Writer

South Africa’s Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies gave a speech on Friday at the Living Planet Conference. During the speech Davies said that the government of South Africa wants to become a manufacturer of green technology.

 The government has created an Integrated Resource Plan that seeks 17.8GW of energy come directly from renewable energy sources by 2030. The new plan was adopted in 2010.

 The country has identified green technology as a major growth driver. South Africa hopes to revitalize its suffering economy by expanding into green fields. For well over two decades now the country’s unemployment rate has been at least 25%. Moving into manufacturing green technology could put a lot of unemployed people to work.


 

Photo courtesy of www.greenpeace.org

Davies says that “Renewable energy investment in South Africa was already the equivalent of 12%-15% of the government’s ambition to spend R1-trillion on infrastructure. It was all private investment.”

 In November South Africa approved seventeen green energy projects that have the ability of adding 1,471.5MW to the national grid. South Africa is looking hard at ways to cut its carbon footprint.

 According to Davies the Department of Trade and Industry has given 26 entities grants through the Manufacturing Competitiveness Enhancement Program. The total public and private investment stands at more than R700bn. The grants will be used to help existing companies upgrade its production facilities so that they sustain employment and are able to expand.

 During the Living Planet Conference, Business Unity South Africa chairman Bobby Godsell said, “South African businesses needed to focus on their competitiveness because the world faced another decade or two of lower economic growth.”

 Rejecting the far too often heard argument that green energy impedes growth, Rob Davies and other leaders believe that government policy, which includes cash grants and production incentives can help ‘kill two birds with one stone.’ By taking these steps, Davies believes they can boost South Africa’s green energy output while also creating the industrial transformation the country so desperately needs.




Edited by Cassandra Tucker


Green Technology Related Articles






Technology Marketing Corporation

2 Trap Falls Road Suite 106, Shelton, CT 06484 USA
Ph: +1-203-852-6800, 800-243-6002

General comments: [email protected].
Comments about this site: [email protected].

STAY CURRENT YOUR WAY

© 2024 Technology Marketing Corporation. All rights reserved | Privacy Policy