South Africa: Gas Options meeting in Cape Town welcomes 300 investors to discuss the future of South Africa’s gas sector

Source: EnergyNet Ltd.

The South Africa: Gas Options meeting concludes this afternoon at the Mount Nelson Hotel in Cape Town. The two day meeting was a forum for the public and private sector to discuss the opportunities for developing a gas-to-power sector in South Africa, in anticipation of the forthcoming RFP announcement from the IPP Office.

Over 300 investors attended the meeting, which welcomed South African Minister for Energy H.E. Hon. Tina Joemat-Pettersson to speak about the opportunities in the market and the development of South Africa's Gas Utilisation Master Plan.

During the meeting, the South African Minister received the first Presidential Award for Clean Energy Access, to be presented to President Jacob Zuma in recognition of the 'world beating renewable energy IPP programme'.

Organisers EnergyNet also announced during the conference the launch of the 'Not Just Talking' fund to invest in 2KW-4KW off-grid community electricity projects in Africa. The chosen project, SolarTurtle, is a self-contained energy unit housed on a shipping container. The first investment will be 300,000 ZAR.

EnergyNet's Simon Gosling commented, “With our advisors ERM and Fieldstone we have identified South African NGO SolarTurtle as a solution provider that will make a significant impact to the lives of communities in South Africa, with a focus on 'the empowerment of women'. Excitingly, we will also work with the 'EnergyNet Student Engagement Initiative' students to bring education and training to the communities in areas of operations and maintenance and business management, to guarantee the sustainability of these small but important projects.”

For more information visit www.southafrica-gasoptions.com