Clean Technology Conference to focus on technologies that inhibit climate change

JOHANNESBURG - Viridis Africa, the clean technology business and investment conference presents a matchmaking platform for African renewable energy, waste management, water conservation, and recycling businesses and investors on the 16^th and 17^th October 2012 at the Killamey Country Club, Lower Houghton South Africa.

The event is dedicated to entrepreneurs and corporate who seek funding to introduce clean technology solutions and services. Local and foreign investors will be in attendance within the event, seek strategic alliances, distribution partners and acquisitions. 

The event challenges participants and presenters at the conference to present and discuss African solutions to African problems, champion African economic growth, climate change adaptation and climate change mitigation measures.

The conference organizers is adamant the clean technology development in Africa should lead to poverty reduction, disease prevention through improved waste management and water treatment technologies, and higher literacy levels due to access to access to electricity.

Solutions to mitigate change mitigation will be articulated at the conference. Though at the moment, Africa emits barely 3% of the world’s green house gases, yet the continent is most affected. Experts agree that Africa is the most vulnerable continent and least able to adapt to present a new hurdle in the fight against extreme poverty and disease. Africa is also known to have the least capacity and ability to cope with the problems of climate change. For many sub-Saharan African countries, climate change means more frequent drought and floods, water scarcity, and increased health challenges such as under-nutrition.

Global warming could cause temperature rises double those elsewhere. The consequence would be dramatic declines in rainfall and a fall in crops. There are likely to be severe water shortages in many parts of the continent.

According to Suza Adam, managing director of Spindle Communications, and organizers of Viridis Africa, “it’s also imperative for those responsible for the emission of the greater percentage of green house gases to commit to reducing emission at home. The reluctance of greater emitters of green house gases to cutting down emission at home is questionable if we are all committed to global warning reduction.” 

Explains Adam, “buying emission rights abroad is good, but cutting down emission at home is better. And guess what, best is if you can do both.”

“We all have a responsibility to do research and come up with ways in which renewable energy can bring about sustainability to struggling communities. Since renewable energy applications most times takes power generation into the citizenry. It will help us lower our carbon footprint while gauging our energy barometer.”

Adam explains: “Our industries should be bolstered by sustainability initiatives and carbon finance should be used to scale up renewable energy and low-income household energy projects. It will amaze us if we sincerely cut our carbon emissions and implement strategies to adopt and mitigate the risk climate change has on the society.”

“We should undertake energy saving initiatives, e.g. replace your light bulbs with energy saving lights, install timers in various points and turn off all geysers, etc. 

“We should highlight how renewable energy can bring about poverty eradication and sustainable development; how it can bring about agricultural development, productivity and rural sustainability.

“Let’s be able to show the link between renewable energy and food security, sustainable agriculture and rural development. How renewable energy can bring about energy security, food security, quality and sovereignty. How renewable energy can foster gender dimensions in agriculture, rural employment and natural resource management.

Adam concludes: “Lets together reinvent the energy wheel for our planet, with the design and development of efficient renewable energy architectures.”

 Viridis Africa is inviting entrepreneurs to submit a business plan or investment proposal to the organizers of the event. Participating in the event will allow clean tech business owners to raise capital for expansion, acquiring new technology, opening new markets and upscaling production. Business plans should be send to suza@viridisafrica.com before 30 August 2012.

For more info on how to take part and presentation guidelines, please visit www.viridisafrica.com

AGAMA Biogas seeks investors at Viridis Africa Event

On the 16th & 17th October 2012 the second Clean Technology business and investment matchmaking conference for the African continent is to be held at the Killarney Country Club in Lower Houghton, Johannesburg, South Africa. Called “Viridis Africa”, the event is dedicated to entrepreneurs and corporates who are seeking funding to introduce clean technology solutions and services.

Principals who present their business opportunities at this event would have the audience of numerous local and foreign investors, stratified according to their interest and investment criteria. Investors would include venture capital, private equity, project and corporate finance outfits and others dedicated to the clean tech sector. They would also include funding agencies, major industrial conglomerates, technology specific investment funds and major companies who seek strategic alliance and acquisitions.

The company Agama Biogas (Pty) Ltd, runner up in the 2011 South African CleanTech Competition will be presenting a business case for investment at the event. It is the manufacturer of the BiogasPro range of prefabricated biogas digesters. 

The BiogasPro is a unique, patented system that is engineered, designed and manufactured in South Africa for African conditions. It is also the first small digester to achieve certification, in this instance by the South African Pipeline Gas Association.

In addition, BiogasPro is one of the contributors to The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design's, Green Good Design Award 2011 where it has been selected as an award winner for making a positive contribution in the area of more sustainable design and the environment.

BiogasPro’s offerings range from biogas digesters for schools that face inadequate and undignified sanitation for children and staff, to digesters handling animal manure and generating gas that removes the need for expensive and unreliable wood fuel and/or bottled gas for cooking. In a survey conducted in 2008 for the Dutch Government, AGAMA Biogas identified 300 000 energy poor households nationally that could immediately have access to clean energy through biogas.

AGAMA Biogas, together with People’s Power Africa supplied and installed two BiogasPro digesters within an integrated sanitation, waste, energy and food production system at the Three Crown Junior Secondary school, which was one of four schools just in that area that benefited from the BiogasPro technology. The integrated system won the school and People’s Power Africa 9 national and international awards recognising the project’s value.

In addition, AGAMA Biogas also extended further into the hospitality industry, where the company seeks to recycle the waste water from kitchens and hand wash basins, combining it in the digester with food waste from food preparation and plate scrapings. The gas is then used in the kitchens for cooking and the nutrient rich waste water from the digester is then ideal for irrigation of gardens. Prime examples of such sites are the student residence, Leo Marquard at the University of Cape Town and the digesters that have recently been installed at three upmarket bush camps in Botswana.

Viridis Africa invites clean tech company owners to submit a business plan or executive summary for evaluation, and to be included in the line-up of the event.

The following are some of the clean tech sub-sectors in which principals may consider their company, initiative being presented:

·         Wind, solar, hydro, biofuels, geothermal, clean coal technologies

·         Fuel cells, advanced batteries, hybrid systems

·         Building efficiency, smart grids, waste heat recovery

·         Water treatment, water conservation, waste water treatment, desalination

·         Recycling, waste treatment, organic matter, plastics.

Please note that the deadline for business proposal submission is 30th of August 2012. 

Presenters will have the opportunity to introduce their investment case to interested parties throughout the lifecycle of their business, i.e. from conceptual, early stage / start-up through to established business.

Visit www.viridisafrica.com for more information

Viridis Africa 2012, where entrepreneurs and innovators meet with green investors

Following on the success of the launch of Viridis Africa 2011, where more than 20 major investment opportunities were presented to prospective investors, Viridis Africa is now soliciting business plans in the clean tech industry from entrepreneurs seeking funding to turn their projects to account.

Viridis Africa as its name suggests in Latin, is about investment into "green" sustainable technologies and projects, presented by entrepreneurs and corporates who are seeking funding to introduce clean technology solutions and services.

Principals who would present their business opportunities at this clean technology venture capital, private equity and debt financing event would have the audience of numerous local and foreign investors, stratified according to their sectoral interest and investment criteria.

This year Viridis Africa will introduce foreign companies who wish to deploy their technology solutions encapsulated into regional commercial ventures, seeking local business partners and co-investors.

It is expected that numerous parties from USA, Europe, China, and India will be attending the event to obtain a firsthand overview of clean tech opportunities in the region.

Investors would include venture capital, private equity, project and corporate finance outfits and private investors focused in environmental technologies. They would also include international funding agencies, major Asian industrial conglomerates, technology specific investment funds and major companies who seek strategic alliance and acquisitions.

The following are some of the clean tech sub-sectors in which principals may consider their company or clean tech initiative being presented:

·         Clean Energy Generation: Wind, solar, hydro, biofuels, geothermal, clean coal technologies

·         Storage: Fuel cells, advanced batteries, hybrid systems

·         Infrastructure: Management, transmission

·         Efficiency: Building efficiency, smart grids, waste heat recovery

·         Water & waste water: Water treatment, water conservation, waste water treatment, desalination

·         Recycling & waste: Recycling, waste treatment, organic matter, plastics

Presenters will have the opportunity to introduce their investment case to interested parties throughout the lifecycle of their business, i.e. from conceptual, early stage / startup through to established business.

The event will also introduce parties with complementary technologies and business models to one another to explore mutually beneficial opportunities.

In the main the conference and its exhibition will endeavour to bring about a vibrant “market platform” for entrepreneurs and corporates to propose and conclude investment deals with funders.

Although the event is to be held once a year, it is designed to give the participants long term continuity vis a vis  the provision of web-based interaction platforms, inducing social networks such as the Sub-Saharan Africa Sustainable Energy group  on Linkedin.com.

In addition it is intended to hold Viridis Africa within individual countries in Africa, as and when greater interest and support is gained in a particular country.

The deadline for business proposal submission is 30th of August 2012 and should be forwarded to suza@viridisafrica.com.

An executive business summary of the proposed clean tech technology, project or company is required in order for the organiser, Spindle Communications, to match the business proposal with the appropriate theme and funders. Importantly participants need to indicate the funds they seek and the principal terms for investors’ participation.

Visit www.viridisafrica.com for more information.

Funding clean tech projects in Africa

On the 17^th and 18^th of October 2011 the Viridis Africa conference is to be held in Johannesburg, South Africa.  The event is dedicated to the introduction of clean technologies and associated business/investment opportunities.

The intention of Viridis Africa is to bring together investors and entrepreneurs from Africa and rest of the world, to jointly explore commercial initiatives in green technologies.

The program includes presentation of specific projects or business initiatives, ranging in size and scope and encompassing most of the priority areas such as bioenergy, hydro, wind power, green chemistry, recycling, water treatment, desalination, amongst others.

According to conference organiser, Suza Adam, managing member of Spindle Communications, “principals who would present their business opportunities at this event would have the audience of numerous local and foreign investors. Investors would include venture capital, private equity, project and corporate finance outfits and others dedicated to the clean tech sector. Also included are major companies who seek strategic alliance and acquisitions.”

Among the projects being presented is a bioethanol and a biomass production project in Mozambique, a biogas project in Kwa-Zulu Natal, 15 MW hydro projects in Kenya, a biofuel project in Malawi and RD Congo, and a plastic recycling operation in Nigeria.

Other projects to be confirmed in the program line-up include solar, energy projects, waste management and water treatment innovative solutions.

New technologies currently being developed by academic and research institutions will also have their opportunity so as to introduce potential business opportunities through the commercialization of the above.

The event will have amongst its presenters leading financial institutions including the Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa, Investec Limited, Nedbank, Threelawscapital, Lereko Metier, Inspired Evolution, as well as leading utilities in energy (Eskom) and water.

“Additional business proposals are invited from clean tech sub-sectors including clean energy generation (wind, solar, hydro, biofuels, geothermal, clean coal technologies), storage (fuel cells, advanced batteries, hybrid systems), efficiency (smart grids, waste heat recovery), water & waste water (water treatment, water conservation, waste water treatment, desalination) and recycling and waste (recycling, waste treatment, organic matter, plastics) etc.” says Adam.

The event will also introduce parties with complimentary technologies and business models to one another in order to explore mutually beneficial opportunities.

“In the main the conference and its exhibition will endeavour to bring about a vibrant market trading place for entrepreneurs and corporates to propose and conclude investment deals with funders”, concludes Adam.

Although the event is to be held once a year, it is designed to give the participants long term continuity vis a vis  the provision of web-based interaction platforms, inducing social networks.

For more information about the conference: please visit us at www.viridisafrica.com.

Viridis Africa - clean technology investment summit

On the 16th & 17th October 2012 the second Clean Technology business and investment matchmaking conference for the African continent is to be held in Johannesburg South Africa.

Called Viridis Africa, the event is dedicated to entrepreneurs and corporates who are seeking funding to introduce clean technology solutions and services.

According to conference organiser, Suza Adam, managing member of Spindle Communications, “principals who would present their business opportunities at this event would have the audience of numerous local and foreign investors. Investors would include venture capital, private equity, project and corporate finance outfits and others dedicated to the clean tech sector. They would also include major companies who seek strategic alliance and acquisitions.”

Proposals are invited from clean tech sub-sectors including clean energy generation (wind, solar, hydro, biofuels, geothermal, clean coal technologies), storage (fuel cells, advanced batteries, hybrid systems), efficiency (smart grids, waste heat recovery), water & waste water (water treatment, water conservation, waste water treatment, desalination) and recycling and waste (recycling, waste treatment, organic matter, plastics) etc.

The event will also introduce parties with complimentary technologies and business models to one another to explore mutually beneficial opportunities. Research and development projects in the above sectors where such are being conducted within academic and research institutions in South Africa, will also be presented.

“In the main the conference and its exhibition will endeavour to bring about a vibrant market trading place for entrepreneurs and corporates to propose and conclude investment deals with funders”, concludes Adam.

Although the event is to be held once a year, it is designed to give the participants long term continuity vis a vis  the provision of web-based interaction platforms, inducing social networks, virtual market place and other interactive features.

For more info, visit www.viridisafrica.com

Madini Africa brings about investment in African mineral beneficiation

Johannesburg – Madini Africa (www.madiniafrica.com)  is the pre-eminent Pan African investment conference dedicated to mineral processing & beneficiation projects throughout the continent.

With the leading roll Africa is playing in answering the world needs for resources, there is also greater awareness of the opportunities to be had in as far as establishing value add processing and manufacturing operations near or by resource site.

According to conference organiser, Suza Adam of Spindle Communications, “aside of the commercial benefits that beneficiation brings the mine, there will be a significant socio-economic benefits to communities and their countries as a whole.”

New drive by African governments to achieve more equitable sharing of their natural resources is already evidenced by intended actions to be taken by SA government
looking to introduce new legislation motivating and or compelling mining companies to invest in mineral beneficiation – other African countries are sure to follow.

Madini Africa is designed to bring about the participation and interaction of mining houses, industrial manufactures, technology partners, mining consultants, environmental engineering companies, institutional investors, corporate and project financiers, government and municipal representatives etc. to explore the establishment of mineral processing initiatives as suitable to a particular geography i.e. its available set of resources, commercial validity, business prospects, amongst other
aspects.

Ultimately the first and foremost intention of the event is to introduce well qualified investment opportunities to a well defined set of investors.

“This will result in a better "match-up" rate of success, as proposed projects are not ‘one size fits all’,  says Adam.

Much of the Madini Africa's effort would concentrate and culminate during the 2 days event, showcasing the most promising of business & investment opportunities.

Before and after the event there will be a strong effort to collate and evaluate many opportunities which may not qualify to be participating in the main event. These projects or initiatives will not be cast aside but rather be offered to utilise alternative methods of engagement by the Madini Africa platform, and then be re- evaluated for participation in subsequent events.

The Madini Africa website, blog and related social networks will offer participants the opportunity to have a measure of continuity in their efforts to seek the capital they need for their projects and for investors to interact with other like-mined investors seeking to participate or share in similar type of opportunities.