A Microgrid Centre of Excellence (CoE) has been launched at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in partnership with Power Africa, a US government-led initiative coordinated by the United States Agency for International Development. The centre will support local utilities with microgrid implementation projects as an alternative way of achieving universal access to electricity.
US-based think tank the Milken Institute, together with local nonprofit the Motsepe Foundation, has named a Tanzanian biotech company NovFeed as the winner of the inaugural Milken-Motsepe Prize for its upcycling technology in the agricultural technology (agritech) space.
The competition marks the first in a series of multiyear, multimillion-dollar innovation competitions and programmes by the two partners to advance technological progress towards United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The seasonally adjusted Absa Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) rose to 49.8 index points in April from 48.1 points in March.
The index, however, remains below the 50-point neutral mark, as business activity and new sales orders worsened in April.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) on Tuesday said that no amount of blame shifting will hide the undeniable fact that Mineral Resources and Energy Gwede Mantashe has, since his appointment, failed to advance the procurement of independent power generation and the incentivisation of private investment in the energy sector. Mantashe recently blamed the private sector for not investing in new power plants, which he says has led to loadshedding.
The continuing uncertainty of the global economic outlook is reflected in the striking spread of responses to international organisation the World Economic Forum (WEF) 'Chief Economists Outlook' survey, in which experts are evenly divided on the prospects for the global economy, with equal shares of 45% saying that a global recession this year is likely or unlikely. Chief economists from the public and private sectors expect growth and inflation dynamics to vary widely across regions.