REDHub - Renewable Energy Development Hub - KZN

The magnificent Latitude Conference Centre was the venue for the most significant Renewable Energy Seminar since COP 17 was held in December, 2011.

Stakeholders from across the country, and guests from Germany and USA assembled for a 'Stakeholders Engagement and a Fact-Finding Mission' to measure the state of the energy sector in KZN.

While it is evident that SA is slowly incorporating power generating projects nationwide, mostly in solar and wind, and sparingly with hydro, biomass and waste to energy programs, it is also far to evident that we are lagging behind the civilized world who have made a concerted effort to decrease their carbon footprint and emission control from reduction of fossil fuels.

The panel of distinguished speakers, included experts in their fields, all highlighting the obvious and critical need for the implementation of Renewable Energy and that the REDHub was the much needed platform to launch and achieve sustainable results.

This development will be a windfall for the local area as the REDHub, a sister project to WISTA Technology Hub in Berlin, Germany, has been earmarked for ILembe and will bring significant and sustainable opportunities to the District.

With Phase 1 already having attracted commitment for R2 billion (70% German, 10% British, 10% French and 10% S Korea) foreign investment, poised to be released into the local economy, it was not long before the meeting hit crescendo pitch. While all present acknowledged that the REDHub was a major game changer, the seminar drilled deeper into how Private, Public & Community can accelerate implementation.

The REDHub will specialize in 3 clusters; 1) Renewable Energy, 2) Integrated Networks & Smart Technology and 3) Biodiversity, Nutrition and Water, and will include 80 SA companies, 40 International companies, 8 scientific institutions, employing some 4000 permanent jobs, and Durban University of Technology will as educational partners, open a new Renewable Energy Campus on the REDHub site, with an anticipated 1200 growing to 3000 students.

Be it an apprentership or a doctorate, the mentorship program will take new business through the incubator stage and release a qualified and competent graduate into the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) manufacturing program, who collectively will serve the numerous power generation projects.

With over 2000Mw of projects on the table, all that is missing is the platform to administrate, manage and maintain the industry. As pioneers in the SA energy sector, REDHub will be the most important catalytic project that has landed on our local shores.

Says local resident Thomas Nicolson, the co-founder of the REDHub, "It's been a 7 year journey, and after yesterday's meeting I felt closer than ever before of landing this giant elephant. The pieces are all in place and the jigsaw is finally looking like a masterpiece".

With the momentum of the unanimous thumbs up of all the delegates, and creation of a dynamic Task Team to ensure all the enthusiasm is harnessed and drives the project to completion, a world class technology hub is becoming a reality right here on our doorstep.