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PREA International Workshop

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SESSA has negotiated a discount on the fee of 10% for members in good standing. Please inform SESSA if you wish to attend. We need to collect the fee from you, which can be paid directly into our account 9145520235 with a notation indicating PREA fee and your name. SESSA will then complete a block booking with the organizers. If you have any queries please address them to info@sessa.org.za or swh@sessa.org.za

Regards,
Jon Adams
Treasurer


PREA INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP, DBSA – Midrand
 3rd to 4th October, 2006
DME’s energy efficiency and renewable energy targets:
Addressing South Africa’s energy crisis through built environment interventions

Click here to view page 1 of the PREA Workshop pamphlet.
Click here to view page 2 of the PREA Workshop pamphlet.

Imagine a time when IPPs (independent power producers) policies have come into effect and grid-interactive photovoltaics (PV) supplying power to the grid at premium tariffs for green electricity have become part of our energy policy and practice. Imagine that by then, PV systems will be at 50% of the prevailing market price and the technology to install building integrated PVs will be as common as contemporary electrical and plumbing technology. Imagine also that at the same time, thermal energy requirements of our buildings will mainly be by renewable energy sources (including solar water heating and passive thermal control) or by gas fuel. Imagine also that by then the means to and from work or school will be mainly by bio-fuelled cars or public transport with up to 85% less emissions compared to today’s fossil fuels.
 
For South Africa, this future is rapidly transforming from wishful thinking to actual reality by the day. Having suddenly awakened from the era of over-capacity and cheap electricity from Eskom and the need for a new cycle of capital investment for expanded capacity, availability and affordability of conventional energy in future will be constrained. Whereas this may spell doom and gloom in many spheres, it has created an unprecedented opportunity for alternatives which were hitherto inhibited by the over-capacity and low tariffs of Eskom’s electricity.
 
As a major consumer of energy and electricity in particular, the built environment faces the challenge of being one of the key victims of constrained supply and affordability. On the other hand, it faces the tremendous opportunities now opening up in terms of energy efficiency and renewable energy. This is expected to ultimately translate into enormous professional, business, economic and job opportunities for the sector and the economy in general.
 
Optimising on these opportunities will require close synergetic collaboration among the stakeholders in the sector in order to ensure that capacity and scale of responses are well synchronised to match the magnitude and diversity of the emerging opportunities. There now exists a need to set an appropriate platform for the collaboration of the key stakeholders who will take the responsibility of translating the opportunities into the reality of practice in terms of projects, policies, finance, industries and skills for built-environment interventions. Through the PREA International Workshop, the School of Architecture and Planning at WITS, in collaboration with other partners under the PREA Project, will facilitate further consultations among the various stakeholders in support of subsequent follow-ups and action.
 
For further details on participation, registration and exhibition at the PREA-International Workshop, please visit our website at: www.wits.ac.za/Conferences/PREA-WITS.  
Created by Secretariat
Last modified 2006-08-18 02:05 PM