- Bloomberg reports that Karpowership, the Turkish company seeking to supply 1220MW of electricity to South Africa via floating gas powered facilities in three ports, had its environmental application to moor a ship-mounted power plant at the port of Saldanha Bay suspended after allegations that the views of small-scale fisheries were misrepresented.
Triplo4 Sustainable Solutions, the company’s consultant, was given until March 17 to respond to allegations by environmental non-profit, The Green Connection, that it used the views of commercial fishing companies and aquaculture operators to represent those of smaller operators.
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The Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment “will initiate an investigation,” it said in letters to The Green Connection, Triplo4 and Karpowership sent to Bloomberg.
The Saldanha project, which involves the installation of a 320-megawatt gas-fired power plant on South Africa’s west coast, is one of three. An environmental application to moor a 450-megawatt powership at the southern port of Coega has been refused, according to a person familiar with the matter, while the fate of a 450-megawatt project at Richards Bay on the east coast is unknown.
The environment department, which had until March 7 to make decisions on the applications, has yet to make a public statement.
Source: Bloomberg
