FACE-TO-FACE
The Cummins range of diesel generators and engines
provides prime and backup power systems across a host of
industries, fuel types, and power ratings, from 8kVA to 3 750kVA.
is going to come in sooner rather than later, the
problem is that if you legislate the move away
from diesel and there isn’t a viable replacement,
it’s not going to be successful.
Now at Cummins, as a company that
manufactures diesel engines, we actually welcome
the move towards ‘greener’ energy solutions and
reducing carbon emissions, although that might
surprise some people. We are not just dumping
our old stock in Africa; we are actually investing
in emissions technology and lobbying for this
kind of change.
I do think that first-world countries are going
to have to drive the change to reduce emissions,
and then developing countries will follow.
For now, though, the more practical solution
for a country like South Africa is to focus on
improving energy efficiency, rather than trying to
produce more energy. We need to look at ways
of using less. Energy efficiency is the quickest
and smartest source of increasing available
electricity. And it is emissions free.
RG: With some hybrid solutions, the focus
is on finding a way to efficiently store
power that isn’t immediately used, to off-set
emissions. Is this applicable to the kind of
power generation solutions that you supply?
Cummins graduate Siandri Naiker
demonstrates the company’s virtual reality
equipment to delegates visiting their stand
at the Power & Electricity World Africa
(PEWA) Exhibition.
30
JULY 2017
KG: Again, not really in Africa. Globally, there
is a lot of work being done on batteries, but
while I certainly think that it will come to our
continent in the future, it is still a way off.
However, companies — particularly global
companies — are thinking about it. They
cannot just ring-fence their African operations
because it affects their entire picture, so change
will definitely come, just slowly.
I certainly believe that hybrids are a step in the
right direction, and in my view, mixing diesel and
solar is about diesel abatement. I think solar is
going to take its rightful place in the market; it
has already grown significantly in the past five
years, even in the last year. The rate of change
is going to depend a lot on the efficiency of the
solar harvesting and on economies of scale.
If I think back to two years ago, global mining
companies, for example, didn’t really take solar
seriously as an alternative power source. Now,
however, we are starting to see tenders that
actually call for a solar/diesel hybrid, and those
same companies are asking about other energy
solutions as well.
RG: Are there any sectors other than mining,
specifically in Africa, that are starting to look
at things like solar power?
KG: Absolutely. I would say retail —
warehousing, shopping malls, and so on —
is definitely a sector that is looking at this,
because there’s a lot of open space for solar
panels. And it’s not only global companies
driving the change, but South African
companies like Pick n Pay and Shoprite
Checkers, too. As they move into Africa,
they are driving a new wave of thinking.
They might not be able to implement
alternative energy solutions like solar power
here in South Africa right now, but when
they put up a shopping mall in Ghana, they
might include solar panels on the roof, or
make provision for adding this later in the
initial design. And then they take what they
have learnt in these other countries and
projects, and bring it back to South Africa. n