Sustainable energy systems of the emerging future

Introducing MitoMito’s genesis was sparked in 2007 from the idea that Africa needs to use its rich, mineral resource base to participate in those global value chains which will empower the continent to meet the basic needs of its people. A case in point would be minerals such as the platinum group metals (PGMs) and vanadium, energy-critical elements used in energy generation and storage technologies. Though countries like South Africa and Zimbabwe are home to the world’s largest deposits of these metals and are renowned for being the largest producers and exporters of these resources, their participation in the high-end production tiers of the global value chain is minimal.

What is more, South Africa has lived through an energy crisis while the rest of the continent is energy poor. It is within this context that Mito was established in 2012 with a quadruple imperative: energy services provision; resource-based industrialisation; new industry development in which, by virtue of the technologies we are working with, the development of the PGMs and chrome markets are central; and climate-change mitigation.

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Our Purpose, Vision & MissionWe exist to ensure that sustainable energy services – which are fundamental to life, to social and economic institutions, and to socio-economic development – are available to all.

The vision that fuels our business is the provision of affordable and reliable sustainable energy services to all, all the time, anywhere, where and when they are needed.

Our mission is to power Africa through smart energy-ecosystems and sustainable partnerships.

Mitochondria’s Values

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We are committed to a future in which sustainability is the de facto standard of how we live and do business.Sustainability |

For us, more than the turnover of goods, a customer-service dominant logic is the basis of economic and social exchange. | Customer Service

At Mito, our word is our honour. Integrity – a virtue constituted by accountability, ethics and competence – is central to our business ethos.

Integrity, Accountability & Ethics |

We recognise and have a deep appreciation for the business ecosystem within which we operate. If it were not for this web of co-evolving and interacting stakeholders, we would not exist.

| The Business Ecosystem

‘Tshanda iya, tshanda vhuya’ in the Venda language; or, more aptly in Sanskrit: ‘ka me ka thee’—the principle of mutuality and reciprocity.Reciprocity |

We are committed to the conscious pathway of choice and resilience expressed in the courage to be and to affirm who we are. This includes continually venturing out beyond the limits of the possible to avoid operating our business in uncreative stagnation.

| Courage and Resilience

We are a company of passionate learners, dedicated to excellence and inspired by wabi sabi, the Japanese philosophy which states that, in this life, everything is impermanent, imperfect and incomplete. Although we will inevitably make mistakes, we are committed to always growing and improving.

Passionate Learners |

We believe that business can be used to promote international understanding and peaceful co-existence.

Promoting International Understanding

The Work We DoWe provide off-grid, decentralised, distributed, on-site and at-point-of-use, as well as grid-connected, value-adding energy solutions.We design, construct and assemble customised energy-services ecosystems for the delivery of value-adding energy services to mission-critical, high and energy-intensive, mobile (motive) energy users such as those in the telecommunications, mining, chemicals, refining, hospitality, logistics and materials-handling sectors.We unlock and develop new energy-services markets.We co-inspire a change in paradigm from seeing energy as a cost to seeing energy as a value-adding facet of our clients’ business offering.We leverage our market-development activities to promote the value-adding beneficiation of Africa’s mineral resources.

The Chinese call it wei wu wei, action with no action. We see it as emergence, a ‘going with the flow’ which might be termed the pathless way.

Emergence & Spontaneity |

Our Energy Solutions

FUEL CELLSFuel cells are electrochemical devices which use low-to-zero carbon-content fuels to generate

electricity. They are the ultimate decentralising technology and can be scaled from simple watts to multi-megawatts in capacity. Although the technology is over 160 years old, in the last 60 years it has been developed and adapted for industrial and commercial applications.

ENERGY STORAGEVanadium flow batteries which store energy in a liquid vanadium electrolyte that circulates between

two tanks. The simplicity of the design creates a robust and efficient system which can be charged and discharged completely, as well as cycled thousands of times a year without having an impact on the battery’s lifespan.

OTHER TECHNOLOGIESPhotovoltaic or PV cells that generate power by converting solar radiation into direct current (DC)

electricity using semi-conductors. Combined together to form solar panels, these cells can be scaled to meet the electrical demands of our clients.

We also offer small and medium sized wind turbine generators with energy generation capacities of up to 100kW, as well as small hydro-power solutions and biomass co-generation plants.

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Projects Completed To DateOn March 31, 2015, we installed a 100kW fuel cell at the Chamber of Mines in Johannesburg to meet baseload demands at the site. Being grid-independent, it supplies the building with baseload power regardless of the performance of the surrounding grid. The Minister of Trade & Industry, Hon. Dr Rob Davies, officially unveiled the installation. This turnkey contract was funded jointly by the Chamber of Mines, the DTI, the IDC and Mitochondria Energy Company.

Furthermore, Mito has advised the Dube Trade Port Corporation, an SEZ next to the King Shaka International Airport in Kwa-Zulu Natal, on the potential deployment of fuel cells to augment their energy mix. We expect that a major deployment of fuel cells in the multiple-megawatt range will be rolled out at the SEZ in the near future.

Our business has also conducted feasibility studies looking at fuel cell application in Transnet’s locomotive trains and the commercialisation of fuel cells for the DTI.

Mito’s Structures

Terracotta Resources is a South African investment holding company founded in 2002 with a vision to invest in sustainable solutions in the energy, water, materials and food sectors, as well as developing downstream beneficiation opportunities in the South African and African markets, specifically with the development of the hydrogen and fuel cell technologies market in mind. As a result of this vision, through the labours of Mashudu Ramano – co-founder and chairman of the company – Terracotta has succeeded in being instrumental in laying a foundation for the hydrogen and fuel cell industry in South Africa.

The IDC was established in 1940 and is owned by the South African government. It is a development finance institution with over $17 billion in assets. The corporation has a wide range of custom financial products to suit the needs of various projects. These include debt, equity and guarantees, or a combination of these instruments.

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Organogram

Customer

Partner Relations &Business Development

Energy ServicesSolutions

Operations& Maintenance

EngineeringProject Management

AccountingCorporate & Project Finance

Commercial ServicesSolutions

Administration, Coordination& Governance

Our Team

The co-founder of Terracotta Resources and Mitochondria Energy Company, Mashudu is an entrepreneur and director with extensive experience in listed and unlisted companies in South Africa. With over ten years of experience in the energy sector, he serves on the board of Legend Power Solutions, a company which in partnership with International Power GDF Suez and Mitsui has built the Dedisa Peaking Power Project in Coega, Port Elizabeth and is busy completing the Avon peaking station just north of Durban —facilities which have power generation capacities of over 1000MW. He is also a director of Chevron South Africa.

In the past he has served as Chairman of the boards of the Airports Company of South Africa, Johnnic Communications, African Harvest, Trade & Investment Limpopo and the Platinum Trust of South Africa, as well as a Non-Executive Director of Transnet, Johnnic Industrial Holdings, Coronation Holdings and Delta Electrical Industries.

He was and is still active in the transformation of several sectors of the South African economy. These include: the accounting profession where he was an Executive Director of the Association of Black Accountants and the South African representative of the Chartered Association of Certified Accountants; the small business development sector where he has served the National Federated Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Nafcoc) as Gauteng region’s Secretary General and President, and also nationally as the chamber’s Secretary General, as well as both the Sunnyside Group and the Intsika Enterprise Development Agency (now government’s Small Enterprise Development Agency) as Chairman; notwithstanding the labour market where, in 1996, President Nelson Mandela appointed Mashudu to be a Commissioner of the Presidential Labour Market Commission. In the PGMs sector, among other things he has also been active in the Platinum Valley Development Initiative.

Mashudu Ramano | CEO

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Luvo holds an MSc in Sustainable Energy Engineering from the University of Cape Town which was a combination of coursework and a dissertation. His previous studies included BTech & MTech degrees in Chemical Engineering from the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (formerly known as Cape Technikon). As a result of his studies, Luvo has worked for Fine Chemicals Corporation in the pharmaceutical industry and for Afrox Ltd in the industrial gasses industry.

A concern for energy security and climate change in South Africa – but also throughout the world – kindled his passion to see the energy sector make the transition to low-carbon energy development.

Luvo’s core values include respect for others, integrity and being assertive in a way that is not obstinate. He strives to improve our society by finding sustainable ways to use the resources we have. He enjoys working in intellectually-stimulating, innovative and challenging environments, and to have the freedom to initiate, develop and run with creative ideas.

Sisa Njikelana was a Member of the South African Parliament between 2004 and 2014, and Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Energy, and a member of various other parliamentary committees. He studied at Rhodes University and at Ruskin College, Oxford University.

He is the MD of Mesereti International and a Senior Policy Advisor and Industry Specialist for the South African Industrial Energy Efficiency Project in the National Cleaner Production Centre. He is a research fellow at the Centre for Competition, Regulation and Economic Development at the University of Johannesburg, and a former Chairperson of the SA Independent Power Producers Association. He sits on the Board of Gauteng Enterprise Propeller and is active in various energy industry organisations.

Mitochodria’s CFO, Fana holds a BCompt (Hons) degree and a Diploma in Computer Auditing, and is a Chartered Accountant (SA). Spanning twenty years, his work experience is diverse and has encompassed development finance, fund management, tax consulting, consulting on business incentives, internal auditing and computer auditing.

His previous experience includes: fund management at the IDC where he managed third-party donor funds administered by the IDC, as well as on-balance sheet, ring-fenced,

concessionary IDC funds; Internal Audit Manager at Deloitte; later Business Development Manager in the Indirect Tax Division of Deloitte, specialising in international trade, customs and excise duties, and business incentives; Director at Xhikhova Advisory, a professional business consultancy specialising in various aspects of international trade; and Principal at The Access & Lobby Corp., a professional business consultancy which specialised in enabling industry to access government incentives programmes.

Fana Marivate | CFO

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Luvo Vanyaza | Project Development Engineer

Jan finished first in his electrical/electronic engineering faculty class at the North-West University, winning the South African Institute for Electrical Engineers top student award in 2009. He continued his studies and obtained a master’s degree in 2012, specialising in hydrogen energy. His previous work experience includes: working as a research engineer at HySA Infrastructure and as a system integration engineer at Hydrogenics

in 2014, a leading hydrogen fuel cell developer on the international stage based in Toronto, Canada. His work on hydrogen energy has been presented in Germany, Canada and Switzerland, and has led to several internationally published papers. Jan is passionate about establishing and developing sustainable energy solutions in and around South Africa.

Jan van der Merwe | Specialist, Energy Services Solutions

Sisa Njikelana | Chairperson

Bowline Professional Services (Pty) Ltd is an independent mining consulting company primarily based in Johannesburg, South Africa. Bowline offers extensive experience in the mining and project engineering industry with involvement in a variety of activities ranging from mine operations, project management, mining engineering, rock engineering, mineral asset valuations, due diligences, feasibility studies, asset valuations, EPCM contracts and business plan development for start-up businesses in other mining and non-mining related engineering service industries.

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PartnersBigen Africa’s track record of more than 30 years in the delivery of infrastructure speaks for itself. They have integrated “best of breed” expertise to customise value-added business solutions for their clients.

Bigen has experience in numerous countries on the African continent and in Mauritius. The company employs the services of more than 500 permanent staff and contracted service providers, including engineers, project managers, environmentalists, town planners, accountants, lawyers, technicians, technologists, quantity surveyors, engineering draughts-people, project

finance and development experts, and site and administrative staff.

Founded forty years ago, ESPE started its history in the field of large electrical installations. The company designs and installs reliable green-energy systems: wind turbine generators, cogenerators and biomass-based solutions, hydroelectric turbines, power plants and photovoltaic solutions .

Though their headquarters are based in Italy, ESPE are active worldwide. 500 operators, including employees and peripheral staff in 12 locations, contribute every day to make ESPE a competitive, industrial group on a global scale.

Since their establishment in 1923, Fuji Electric has innovated in energy technology to make broad contributions to the world in the fields of industrial and social infrastructure. Through their pursuit of innovation in electric and thermal energy technology, they develop products that maximise energy efficiency and lead to a responsible and sustainable society.

Their Power and Social Infrastructure division enables Fuji to meet the growing demand for electric power through their creation of equipment made for electric power plants that enables highly efficient, environmentally friendly energy supplies.

Aksa Energy, established in 1997, operated Turkey’s first Biogas Plant in Bursa in 1998. Later, to resolve the issue of energy supply in Turkey, Aksa constructed and started operating energy plants of various capacities across the country. Over time Aksa Energy diversified its investments and has now become the largest independent power producer (IPP) in Turkey with over 2.5GW of installed capacity in natural gas, coal, fuel oil, diesel, hydro-electric power plants and windparks operating domestically and abroad.

Born out of a group of sustainable energy businesses in Kenya in 1989, redT has grown into an innovative and successful company in the renewable energy sector in the years since its inception.

The current iteration of the business began in earnest in 2000 with a research project called E-Fuel. The purpose of the study was to examine the possibility of refuelling cars using vanadium electrolyte technology. This, in turn, led the company to explore the larger, stationary energy market, a space in which

it finds itself operating today and where it has made its mark.In 2015, redT was the first energy business in the world to a contract-manufactured, containerised,

large-scale vanadium redox flow machine. The company is listed on the London Stock Exchange, and has offices in the UK, Africa and the USA.

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AVL is the world’s largest independent developer of powertrain systems. Their solutions include internal combustion engines, instrumentation and test systems.

Started in the 1940s by Prof. Dr Hans List, during its long and illustrious life, AVL has provided ‘an essential and continuous contribution to the developments in the automotive industry’ through their technical innovations. In the period between 1999 & 2009 alone, the company applied for 615 patents with the Autrian Patent Office, with 60 inventions being granted in 2008.

With seven decades under its belt (and counting), AVL continues to excel in its engineering solutions and innovations.

A company with a vision to help people become energy secure and independent through clean, green technology, h2e is the brainchild of social entrepreneur Siddharth R. Mayur. Determined to end the energy shortfall in India, while at the same time working to positively impact climate change, Mr Mayur and his business partners created h2e in order to achieve this goal. Using solid-oxide fuel cell units, the company has been implementing its vision in the agricultural, residential and commercial sectors since 2010.

Credits:

1 Cover photo by Hal Gatewood, ‘Nucleus’ 2 Sustainable Energy Resources table sourced from the European Renewable Energy Council3 End photo by Dominik QN, ‘Bangkok Lightning Storm’ 4 Engineering partners info sourced from our partners5 People icons in organogram made by Freepik from flaticon.com