Proposed plant to revolutionise town’s electrical supply
According to Cllr Rehman, SACC uses approximately 45 Megavolt Amperes (MVA) monthly, but the proposed plant should be able to create around 100 MVA monthly using the town's waste.
A monthly saving of approximately R30-million and one the first cities in Africa to be powered independently.
This is the idea that has been proposed by Mayor, Afzul Rehman and South African Calcium Carbide (SACC).
Following a trip to the United States, Cllr Rehman feels the municipality may now have a way not only to generate its own electricity, but also do so in an environmentally friendly way.
“We visited the United States to see an electrical plant that is run completely from waste materials. The plant was designed by the American military in Jacksonville, Florida, and coupled with the waste of Newcastle, it could possibly produce enough electricity to run the entire town and more,” Cllr Rehman explained to EXCO.
He said the idea to visit the plant was first taken on by SACC, but the municipality had formed a partnership with the company to bring the possible development home.
According to Cllr Rehman, SACC uses approximately 45 Megavolt Amperes (MVA) monthly, but the proposed plant should be able to create around 100 MVA monthly using the town’s waste.
“The plant is run off recycling materials, such as steel, glass and rubber.”
Acting manager of waste, Dr Thava Kelly explained the plant was based on thermal technology, which is a process of gasification and hydrolysis.
Dr Kelly said the process used no oxygen, thus there was no pollution and the operation stayed extremely clean.
“With this project we will not need a new landfill site, but we will make use of a natural recovery plant, which will separate the recycling materials easily.”
Dr Kelly believed Newcastle would be the perfect model to develop this project, as it had a variety of socio-economic factors, and would make the design of the project more sustainable.
Cllr Rehman explained that the cost of a project as big as this would be $150-million, or R1.5-billion.
“Once all the studies have been completed, we would like to propose an application to National Treasury to fund this project.”
On average, the Newcastle Municipality pays Eskom R360-million per annum.
Cllr Rehman believes the savings and developmental opportunities this project will give the town and municipality, will undoubtedly take Newcastle into the history books.
