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IMG_20140724_203550.jpg Eva ten Velden

S.A. Napo

In this article our meeting with Napo will be further explained. Napo is an old friend of Takatso Mofokeng and helps Takatso to find a possible offtaker for the produced energy.

napo.jpg

Meeting Napo

 

Date: 9-12-2015

Duration: 14.00- 16.00

Participants:                  

-        Job Seuren (team member)

-        Yonis le Grand (team member)

-        Steven Roerink (team member)

-        Eva ten Velden (team member)

-        Napo (Internal stakeholder: Takatso has asked him to find an off taker for the electricity)

 

Timeline:

  • Sit down in the living room at the farm of Takatso
  • Discussing the problem of the offtaker
  • Talking a bit about the live of Napo

Electricity:

  • We have made an estimation about the possible production of electricity out of biogas at the farm. This estimation is around 100 kWatt. According to the calculations the production will be 115 kWatt, but we don’t know for sure the real amount of the biomass supply and how long and how often the suppliers will supply us. This is why we keep the possible production around 100 kWatt.
  • Napo said that Eskom and Nissan will not be our offtaker. This project is too small of scale for them so they are not interested. We also thought that.
  • Woolworth on the other hand is interested and because it is a store in biological products it will be nice when they use also green energy. They are even willing to pay a little bit extra for the electricity. Napo doesn’t know how much electricity they will need and how much money they are willing to pay.
  • The question “what is possible with 100 kWatt?” was asked multiple times. It is too much for only self-use, especially because Takatso wants a commercially viable biogas digester and there is no possibility of upscaling the farm. So Napo asked how much a cooling system in a supermarket will use. Job quickly calculated and said that a fridge of 10*12m will use 6 kWatt. So the amount of 100 kWatt could be a nice amount for a supermarket (Woolworth)
  • Napo said: “by the time we all come around the table (so the team, Takatso and himself), I have feedback of Woolworth.
  • Napo has an appointment with Peet Stein of Botala tomorrow. He will ask him for advice about the off taker/ self-use.
  • Napo said one other interesting fact; nowadays people are searching for other kinds of electricity because there is a lack of electricity and Eskom has to make some power cuts. In the summer these power cuts become less and Eskom has the time to repair their generator. This means that in the future (some say even the next winter) there will be no more power cuts. As a reaction the search for alternative/green energy will be over.

CO2:

  • Takatso has this idea that he can sell CO2 as a product from the process. We have to convince him that this is not possible. We can’t separate CO2 by itself, this would be a very expensive process and we can’t compete to the companies which already sell CO2

Fertilizer:

  • We can easily sell this
  • It is biological
  • It is cheaper
  • But we only know the real quality after producing the biogas and taking some of the fertilizer to the lab.

Conclusion:

  • We still don’t know who is going to be our offtaker
  • We have to get around with our team, Takatso and Napo.