State-owned entity the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) on March 23 hosted Belgium's King Philippe at its Indoor Energy Storage Testbed facility, in Pretoria.

South Africa's Higher Education, Science and Innovation Minister Dr Blade Nzimande was also in attendance at the facility, which equips the CSIR to test the performance and reliability of batteries, as expressed by their storage capacity, life cycle and depth of charge. 

“It will make a significant difference in terms of the development of the electric industry in South Africa,” CSIR CEO Dr Thulani Dlamini said at the event, which Engineering News attended.

He said the new infrastructure and associated expertise would strengthen South Africa’s ability to support local players in the battery value chain, thereby boosting the country’s capabilities in renewable energy storage. The facility is equipped with a high-precision system for battery module and pack tests.

It has many channels to test numerous batteries in parallel, under dissimilar test cycles.

“This facility represents the first phase of a long-term development goal to test batteries and to work on electrochemistry. I'd like to stress that this activity is driven not only by scientific curiosity, but primarily to better the lives of our citizens through research and innovation,” CSIR interim chairperson Professor Arnold van Zyl said.

King Philippe is in South Africa at the invitation of President Cyril Ramaphosa, with his visit to the CSIR stemming from a memorandum of understanding signed last year between the CSIR and the Vlaamse Instelling Voor Technologisch Onderzoek (Vito) for the implementation of the project called ‘Tests for Electrical Storage in South Africa, in the Framework of the World Bank Energy Storage Partnership’.

“We, as part of government, remain committed to collaboration between the two countries, and in particular in the scientific world. I hope that not only will the scientists benefit from this exchange, but also the societies in both countries.

"I do know that, in Europe, the energy programme and electric vehicles are [increasing] quite substantially in number. We hope that we can contribute to that,” Nzimande said.