Page 22 - EngineerIT Nov-Dec 2025
P. 22
ENERGY
BORROWED LIGHT
André de Ruyter on the cost of delay, cautious
optimism and the race for rational power
By Justin Render for EngineerIT
outh Africans know the quiet circuitry of hope and fatigue from
too well. That strange calm within.
Sbetween blackouts, when
fridges hum again and the Wi-Fi Today, De Ruyter is an itinerant
stays connected. We’re all cautiously scholar, having given up senior
optimistic, but ready for the lights management to educate, sharing
to go out again. And when they do, a measured, analytical and
we’ll improvise – because that’s what fundamentally hopeful case for
South Africans do. renewable energy.
With this peaceful silence, however, The economics of common sense
many of us remain in the dark about “Replace uncompetitive generation
the structural changes that could with the cheapest form currently
keep the lights on in the long-term. available — and that is renewable
André de Ruyter understands that energy plus storage,” says De
silence. He has lived inside the engine Ruyter. “Beyond the indisputable
room of it as Eskom’s former Chief environmental benefits — a value-
Executive and an agent of change added plus — on a more level basis,
André de Ruyter
behind the scenes. He has seen the it just makes sense.”
22 | EngineerIT November/December 2025
