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A loader moves coal at a mine in Mpumalanga. Picture: MASI LOSI
I’m frustrated with load-shedding and bored to death reading about what Eskom can and can’t do about it. (“Social compact making progress on Eskom challenges”, June 27, and “No sense in Eskom investing in new plants, says De Ruyter”, June 28).
My couch is 40 years old but it’s still comfortable to sit on. Any old coal-fired station that’s still operating should be gold for Eskom, but I read they’d rather close them down. It’s strange that Germany, having screwed up its energy picture by closing nuclear stations, is now reopening its coal-fired ones. Maybe their crystal ball was made in China.
It is surely the triumph of hope over experience that the Kusile and Medupi power stations were imagined to come in on time and on budget. The incompetence and corruption that are the hallmarks of this government are, after all, at the root of our problems.
Since we have the coal, surely our strategy should be to use what we’ve got, put emissions on hold for now, and get mineral resources & energy minister Gwede Mantashe and his coal cronies to agree to up the independent power producers’ nonlicence limit to 1,000MW immediately.
Bernard Benson Parklands
JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Send us an email with your comments to letters@businesslive.co.za. Letters of more than 300 words will be edited for length. Anonymous correspondence will not be published. Writers should include a daytime telephone number.
Support our award-winning journalism. The Premium package (digital only) is R30 for the first month and thereafter you pay R129 p/m now ad-free for all subscribers.
LETTER: Let’s stick with what we have, coal
I’m frustrated with load-shedding and bored to death reading about what Eskom can and can’t do about it. (“Social compact making progress on Eskom challenges”, June 27, and “No sense in Eskom investing in new plants, says De Ruyter”, June 28).
My couch is 40 years old but it’s still comfortable to sit on. Any old coal-fired station that’s still operating should be gold for Eskom, but I read they’d rather close them down. It’s strange that Germany, having screwed up its energy picture by closing nuclear stations, is now reopening its coal-fired ones. Maybe their crystal ball was made in China.
It is surely the triumph of hope over experience that the Kusile and Medupi power stations were imagined to come in on time and on budget. The incompetence and corruption that are the hallmarks of this government are, after all, at the root of our problems.
Since we have the coal, surely our strategy should be to use what we’ve got, put emissions on hold for now, and get mineral resources & energy minister Gwede Mantashe and his coal cronies to agree to up the independent power producers’ nonlicence limit to 1,000MW immediately.
Bernard Benson
Parklands
JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Send us an email with your comments to letters@businesslive.co.za. Letters of more than 300 words will be edited for length. Anonymous correspondence will not be published. Writers should include a daytime telephone number.
EXCLUSIVE: No sense in Eskom investing in new plants, says De Ruyter
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Published by Arena Holdings and distributed with the Financial Mail on the last Thursday of every month except December and January.