Greening & Renewables

AES is one of the few energy plant Operations and Maintenance (O&M) companies in South Africa with the first-hand experience of operating renewable power generating plant in South Africa. Additionally, AES focuses on being the behind the scenes partner to project developers on these types of projects, rather than taking a high profile approach and developing projects of this nature itself. The reality is that the uptake on renewable energy projects to diversify the energy mix in South Africa requires technical skills concerning operations and maintenance, and that is where AES focuses its activities.


Greening & Renewables

AES is one of the few energy plant Operations and Maintenance (O&M) companies in South Africa with the first-hand experience of operating renewable power generating plant in South Africa. Additionally, AES focuses on being the behind the scenes partner to project developers on these types of projects, rather than taking a high profile approach and developing projects of this nature itself. The reality is that the uptake on renewable energy projects to diversify the energy mix in South Africa requires technical skills concerning operations and maintenance, and that is where AES focuses its activities.

AES operation of client plants results in a reduced carbon footprint due to efficiency gains and this reduction in carbon footprint can be furthered through consideration of a fuel switch to lower carbon fuel types such as biomass, biogas and natural gas. AES has previous project and operational experience on numerous alternate fuel plants including a biomass power generation facility with a 6 MWe installed capacity. The activities by AES for greening of energy plant operations have covered biomass to steam, biomass to power, by-product repurposing (e.g. sugar waste to energy or biodiesel production) and waste energy / gas utilisation (power and thermal).
AES continues to work with its client-partners to incorporate the use of renewables into its industrial process energy operations. Evaluations have been undertaken on solar water heating to reduce fuel input on steam plant, solar electricity to offset grid electricity use on the steam plant, waste utilisation (fermentation, anaerobic digestion) for use as process fuel or in a generator to offset grid electricity. In a lot of instances, the barrier to entry remains the capital cost of the installations and the long paybacks, however as the need for sustainability in business increases, so the evaluation criteria for these types of projects change, and more and more opportunities approach a point of being considered viable by partner client management.

AES are able to guide current and prospective client-partners on their specific objectives concerning the use of renewables and sustainability and develop bespoke solutions for their needs.
AES continues to work with its client-partners to incorporate the use of renewables into its industrial process energy operations. Evaluations have been undertaken on solar water heating to reduce fuel input on steam plant, solar electricity to offset grid electricity use on the steam plant, waste utilisation (fermentation, anaerobic digestion) for use as process fuel or in a generator to offset grid electricity. In a lot of instances, the barrier to entry remains the capital cost of the installations and the long paybacks, however as the need for sustainability in business increases, so the evaluation criteria for these types of projects change, and more and more opportunities approach a point of being considered viable by partner client management.

AES are able to guide current and prospective client-partners on their specific objectives concerning the use of renewables and sustainability and develop bespoke solutions for their needs.