- Launch of the Water, Air, and Energy (WAE) Lab at UCT in partnership with City of Cape Town and policy-makers
On 14 March 2024, J‑PAL Africa (hosted at UCT) together with the City of Cape Town launched the WAE Lab. The Lab worked to partner policymakers and researchers to generate evidence-based solutions to inform the decisions of city, state, and national governments on clean air, water, and energy. The Water, Air, and Energy Lab is part of a worldwide network of J-PAL’s Air and Water Labs (AWLs). Created with Community Jameel, AWLs partner with government agencies in South Africa, Egypt, and India to address the most pressing air and water challenges through evidence-informed policies. Together the labs aim to improve clean air and water access for millions of people by informing the decisions of city, state, and national governments that together serve nearly 260 million people, including nearly 5 million Capetonians.
This indicates UCT (via J-PAL Africa) is working in a structured way with government to produce policy-relevant evidence in the energy domain.
- HySA Catalysis reference in the SANEDI Annual Report 2023/24
The South African National Energy Development Institute (SANEDI) 2023/24 report references its collaboration with UCT via the Just Energy Transition among its projects.
Just Energy Transition: SANEDI has collaborated with six Universities on the JET Research Programme. The universities are as follows: Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Enterprises University of Pretoria, University of Cape Town, Stellenbosch University, University of Johannesburg, and North-West University. The purpose of this programme is to propose solutions to support the transition to sustainable and cleaner technologies that ensure South Africa’s energy transition aspirations as contained in the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy’s Just Energy Transitions (JET) framework. Through this programme, 37 projects have been concluded thus far and will contribute towards solutions to eradicate ongoing energy crises in South Africa. The projects focus on the following five areas:
- Energy Planning & Policy Input Development
- Energy Efficiency & Demand Side Management
- Grid Planning & Sustainability
- Systems Operations Management
- Power Grid Digitalisation
This shows UCT is involved in national-level clean energy technology infrastructure research (hydrogen catalysis) which connects to the national energy / clean technology policy and development agenda.