South African village becomes first to be powered by fuel cells
by Zandi Shabalala

Reuters    Translate This Article
5 August 2014

KROONSTAD, South Africa (Reuters) - A South African village has become the first in the world to be powered by fuel cells, companies behind the project said on Tuesday, in a new scheme which could help remote areas of the continent access electricity for the first time.

South Africa suffers from power shortages and state-run utility Eskom is struggling to keep up with rising electricity demand, while around 2 million poorer households live without any access to the grid.

'What we have here is a world first,' said Chris Griffith, chief executive of Anglo American Platinum, which is partnering with Canadian-listed Ballard Power Systems in piloting the project.

'Fuel cell mini-grid technology is a cost-competitive alternative to grid electrification in these remote areas and could accelerate access to electricity,' Amplats said.

Amplats is investing around $20 million in the 'mini-grid', which will function independently from the national grid.

The pilot system can generate 15 kilowatts (kW) and a maximum of 60 kW when extra batteries kick in, which will be used to power up 34 homes in a remote community in Naledi in the Free State province for a 12-month trial period.

Amplats and Ballard will cover the pilot scheme costs but hope to make the fuel cell system profitable by tapping into an estimated 600,000 South African households in areas beyond the reach of the grid and millions more throughout the continent.

Fuel cells use a chemical reaction and offer a cleaner alternative to lead-acid batteries. They are already used for in industrial machinery and domestic refrigerators.

The fuel cells use methanol, hydrogen and platinum to produce electricity and a wider roll out of the pilot could give some support to South Africa's struggling platinum sector.

If the fuel cell system is widely adopted about 7,500 ounces of platinum will be used in production over the next 15 years, Amplats and the government said.

(Editing by Joe Brock and Mark Potter)

© Copyright 2014 Reuters

Reuters content is the intellectual property of Thomson Reuters or its third party content providers. Any copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters. Thomson Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. 'Reuters' and the Reuters Logo are trademarks of Thomson Reuters and its affiliated companies. For additional information on other Reuters media services please visit reuters.com/newsagency. 

Every day Global Good News documents the rise of a better quality of life dawning in the world from good news reported by the press; and highlights the need for introducing Natural Law based-Total Knowledge based-programmes to bring the support of Nature to every individual, raise the quality of life of every society, and create a lasting state of world peace.



Translation software is not perfect; however if you would like to try it, you can translate this page using:

(Google) Select a language English to Afrikaans English to Albanian English to Arabic English to Belarusian English to Bulgarian English to Catalan English to Chinese (Simplified) English to Chinese (Traditional) English to Croatian English to Czech English to Danish English to Dutch English to Estonian English to Filipino English to Finnish English to French English to Galician English to German English to Greek English to Hebrew English to Hindi English to Hungarian English to Icelandic English to Indonesian English to Irish English to Italian English to Japanese English to Korean English to Latvian English to Lithuanian English to Macedonian English to Malay English to Maltese English to Norwegian English to Persian English to Polish English to Portuguese English to Romanian English to Russian English to Serbian English to Slovak English to Slovenian English to Spanish English to Swahili English to Swedish English to Thai English to Turkish English to Ukrainian English to Vietnamese English to Welsh English to Yiddish

(Altavista babelfish) Select a languageEnglish to Chinese-simpEnglish to Chinese-tradEnglish to DutchEnglish to PortugueseEnglish to FrenchEnglish to GermanEnglish to GreekEnglish to ItalianEnglish to JapaneseEnglish to KoreanEnglish to RussianEnglish to Spanish

Send Good News to Global Good News.

Your comments.