Every Friday morning, SAfm’s AMLive’s radio anchor Tsepiso Makwetla speaks to Martin Creamer, publishing editor of Engineering News and Mining Weekly. Reported here is this Friday’s At the Coalface transcript:

Makwetla: The fast pace at which US President Barack Obama is moving holds real lessons for South Africa, you say.

Creamer: Incredible lessons for South Africa. The pace at which Barack Obama has moved, even before he set foot in the White House, gives us a spirit of urgency which we could impart to our own politicians and activities here.

By December 22, when he was still President-elect, he had already virtually assembled his whole top team. In fact, the Wall Street Journal says that in the first seven weeks he had already made 69 top appointments and was beginning to make lower appointments.

That is two and a half times faster then George H W Bush, the father of his predecessor, and nearly three times faster than Nixon. We can see that this man has a spirit of urgency, but he has also got clear vision. If you look at his new energy policy and his attitude to renewable energy, it is going to inject new life into the energy scene of the world.

He has made it clear that the US economy and national security of the US is inextricably linked to energy. Obama is saying that they don’t want the old energy, they want new energy.

Just listen to the outline of his vision, these are the words of Barack Obama: “To finally spark the creation of clean energy and a clean energy economy, we will double the production of alternative energy in the next few years. We will modernise more then 75% of federal buildings and improve energy efficiency of 2-million American homes, saving consumers and taxpayers billions on our energy bills.” But, even more important, now, is the jobs that these can create.

Obama continues: “In the process, we will put Americans to work in new jobs that will pay well and can’t be outsourced. Jobs building solar panels, wind turbines and constructing fuel-efficient cars and making fuel-efficient buildings and developing new energy technologies that will lead to even more jobs and more savings and a cleaner, safer planet in the bargain.”

He is going to spend US$150-billion on renewable energy. He will spend at a rate of US$15-billion a year ten years on renewable energy. That will create 5-million new jobs and they will be green jobs, to boot.

Makwetla: Europe, you say, also ploughing a half a billion rands into a new solar-power plant in South Africa. Tell us about that.

Creamer: South Africa could be well ahead on the solar-power front. We know that this investment by the European Investment Bank is into a company in Paarl, which is the Thin-Film Solar Technology company that is setting up a plant there that will have a capacity to build solar panels able to generate 30 MW a year, and that is just the start.

But, this is part of a South African initiative, part of the University of Johannesburg. They researched, for over 13-years now, this thin film solar technology, which takes you down the cost curve. So, the South Africans here don’t only have the sunlight that we can turn into electricity, but we have got the brain power that is actually making it cheaper.

We need also to show a spirit of urgency, because this issue has been going on for a long time. We only see now that it is starting to focus the mind and the European Investment Bank lending this company, Thin Film Solar Technology of Paarl, nearly half a billion rand to set-up its factory.

The factory already going up and another one using that South African technology already built in Berlin and more to be built around the world, using South African technology developed right here in Johannesburg, making sure that you don’t use the expensive metals, but you move over to things like indium, gallium and selenium in the metal use, to make sure you pay less for your solar-power buck.

Makwetla: On the same note I suppose, the Danish government is hosting a major wind-energy conference in South Africa.

Creamer: The wind-energy ambitions of the Danes began in the 70s and today the Danish experience in wind energy is becoming like a Hans Chrisian Anderson fairytale. Not only is it giving them clean energy, this wind power and their renewables generate about 27% of Danish power at the moment, but it is also providing jobs and earning them foreign exchange.

So we can see that this era of new energy is now getting a focal point, through the inauguration speech of Barack Obama, and we see that in Pretoria today, in a few hours time, a conference will begin here, where the Danish government is hosting this wind-energy seminar.

Our own South African Minister of Minerals and Energy Buyelwa Sonjica will be involved there and they will be discussing how we can introduce more renewable energy into our economy and will be focussing on this wind energy. They will be bringing out the big guns of their own industrial activity, Vestas and Dong and Suzlon.

We can see Suzlon Wind Energy with their adverts going up in between the inaugural speech by Barack Obama. So, very much on the ball, and coming right here to South Africa now, today, as we speak, a conference that will give us a far better idea of where we can go with regard to wind energy.

We have got Darling in the Cape, the first commercial wind-energy activity and the Danes even helped to sponsor that. There is going to be another wind farm at Saint Helena and, of course, Eskom has been delaying going ahead with their own wind project in the Cape, for some time.

Makwetla: Thanks very much. Martin Creamer is publishing editor of Engineering News and Mining Weekly, he’ll be back with us at the same time next week.