South Africa's electricity giant Eskom is considering using renewable energy to supply some of the needs of the 2010 Soccer World Cup, Environment Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk has told parliament in a written reply to questions raised by Gareth Morgan (DA) about efforts to "green" the football tournament.

Van Schalkwyk said his department was working with the Central Energy Fund and Eskom on energy efficiency.

"Eskom is also investigating using green energy," he said.

The city of Cape Town would get green energy from the Darling Wind Farm, Ethekwini Metro would use biogas from its landfill sites, and Pretoria would use biogas from the Ekhuruleni Metro.

"The Central Energy Fund has prioritised the rollout of energy-efficient lighting for residential and street lighting in all nine host cities," Van Schalkwyk said. "Other initiatives include solar-powered traffic lights and cameras on freeways."

Host cities had been "urged" to provide an adequate budget to separate waste.

The Local Organising Committee was working on a system of separating waste that would be made uniform throughout the host cities.

Van Schalkwyk said his department was working with the UN Development Programme on an initiative involving carbon offsets for the World Cup and on securing donor funding to implement this.

September 16 2008 at 09:47AM

Source: http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=143&art_id=vn20080916053803370C287052