EL engineer has answer to SA’s power problems

By EDDIE BOTHA

Investigations Editor

A LOCAL engineer says he has designed a turbine system, which, with the help of ocean currents, could generate enough electrical power to save South Africa from the energy crisis it faces.

RJW Engineering’s Brian MacKenzie has already submitted proposals for the funding of a R200 million prototype of the generator to former Eastern Cape premier Makhenkesi Stofile and his successor, current Premier Nosimo Balindlela.

The claim by MacKenzie comes in the wake of a recent article in The Independent in which Eskom Resource and Strategy managing director Steve Lennon said the fast-flowing Mozambique current held the key to an unlimited supply of electricity to meet SA’s needs.

Eskom scientists were investigating harnessing the powerful currents on the East Coast to generate electricity.

“We already have the design in place,” said MacKenzie, when the Daily Dispatch contacted him. He was not prepared to divulge particulars of the design, which he admitted looked like a submarine, for publication.

MacKenzie, who has a background as a chief engineer of a sugar mill and an engineer on a number of gold mines, said a number of RJW and Walter Sisulu University engineers have been working on the project over a number of years.

He said it is a hugely expensive project, which made a partnership with government or one of its agencies imperative.

One ocean current generator would deliver between 12 to 15 megawatts of electricity. A city like East London probably consumes 500 kilowatts electricity.

He said the Wild Coast sea bed was ideal to place the generators. According to a document in which MacKenzie sets out how renewable energy could be derived from ocean currents, the Agulhas current was fast-flowing, close in shore and the ocean bottom was relatively shallow.

MacKenzie said that a single row of 20 equally spaced turbines spanning 2km of a current running 4,5 knots could yield a net power estimate of approximately 100 megawatts. That, he says, is about 0,25 percent of South Africa’s total generating capacity.

His design incorporated simple, proven techniques, has a high power density, required low maintenance, could be operated by smart control technology and would be totally submerged, creating no hazard to shipping.

He said that the ocean current generator would be source of clean power. “By taking energy out of the currents it would also reduce global warming.”

MacKenzie said a factory in East London where the turbines could be built would create 5000 fulltime jobs. Once the concept had been patented, the technique and manufactured units could also be exported.

Balindlela, on July 6, referred MacKenzie’s proposal to the provincial Department of Economic Affairs, which in turn referred it to EC Development Corporation legal adviser Jacques Buchner.

MacKenzie said this was the last attempt he would make to get the South African government interested. “If they are not interested I will take the design overseas.”

Buchner was not available for comment.