Welcome to the mid-winter edition of the SESSA Members Newsletter.

On 19 and 20 March 2009, more than 400 delegates attended the “2009 Renewable Energy Summit” in Pretoria, South Africa. The aim of the Summit was to undertake a mid-term review on the progress made since approval of the White Paper on Renewable Energy in 2003 and agree on a new set of resolutions, policy direction and action plans to rapidly scale up and streamline the application of renewable energy in South Africa.

A document released by the DME outlining the resolutions from the summit can be downloaded here.

1. A copy of the key elements of a presentation to the NERT on 28 May 2009
2. Explanatory memorandum on amendments
3. The energy efficiency clauses in the Taxation Laws Amendment Bill

National Treasury is receiving comments from interested parties on the draft legislation up until 26 June 2009.

Three new global reports have recently been released. See more information on the SESSA website & links to the reports at the following links:

• REN21 Renewables Global Status Report
• UNEP's Global Trends in Sustainable Energy Investment 2009 Report
• Global Concentrating Solar Power Outlook 09

Should you wish to contribute to the SESSA website either by way of an article or even suggestions around additions or refinements to current content, please don't hesitate to e-mail me.

The Natural & Organic Products Exhibition from 26th to 28th June. See the show's website here.

The REEEP Southern Africa Secretariat in Conjunction with SERN is holding a workshop entitled "Policy and Regulation for Energy Efficiency in Southern Africa" in Johannesburg on the 9th &10th of July 2009. For more information, please see the event website.

There are only 117 more days to go until the ISES Solar World Congress 2009 - the 29th biennial congress of the International Solar Energy Society, The conference will be held in Johannesburg from 11 to 14 October 2009. Please visit the conference website for further information on this major event.

Local

1. Fresh air to power South Africa? (BBC, June 15)
2. Eskom creates a perfect storm (Mail & Guardian, June 15)
3. R1,8bn ethanol-from-sugar plant planned for KZN (Engineering News, June 12)
4. 'Poor must be protected from power tariff hikes' (Mail & Guardian, June 11)
5. Eskom's tariff hike request slammed by all comers (Business Report, June 9)
6. South Africa: Kuyasa Carbon Credits Cut Electricity Costs (allAfrica.com, June 8)
7. Power producers ‘can increase Eskom’s capacity’ (Business Day, June 8)
8. SA energy data base will help attract foreign investment – KPMG (Engineering News, June 4)
9. Africa: Biofuels And Neo-Colonialism (allAfrica.com, June 4)
10. Renewable energy punted as quick fix for Eskom (Business Day, June 2)
11. Renewable feed-in tariff could include large-scale PV projects, study shows (Engineering News, June 2)
12. South Africa: Government Edging Towards Renewable Sources (allAfrica.com, June 1)
13. SA’s wind-energy capacity could be 300 MW by 2012 – study (Engineering News, June 1)
14. Eskom may need to ask for 90% increase (Business Report, May 29)
15. Private power sector to get new rules (Business Day, May 22)
16. Energy policy: Ten ways to provide SA with more and cleaner power (Business Day, May 21)
17. New-look energy portfolio welcomed (Business Day, May 12)
18. Demand for energy in cities ‘set to double’ (Business Day, May 6)

International

1. Surprising Green Energy Investment Trends Found Worldwide (Science Daily, June 7)
2. Germany's Solar Head Start (Scientific American, June 5)
3. Slide Show: The World's 10 Largest Renewable Energy Projects (Scientific American, June 4)
4. Green energy overtakes fossil fuel investment, says UN (Guardian, June 3)
5. Energy Leaders Launch Efficiency Partnership (Worldwatch Institute, June 2)
6. A solar plant that's worth its salt (Los Angeles Times, May 29)
7. Poo power to the people (Guardian, May 28)
8. Concentrated solar power could generate 'quarter of world's energy' (Guardian, May 26)

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