Eskom to collectively establish solar projects at South African coal mines

• South African utility Eskom has actually authorized a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with mining business Exxaro as well as Seriti Resources to help decarbonise their procedures by releasing solar PV.

Revealed today (25 October), the first stage of the agreement will certainly see the building of off-grid as well as rolled solar solutions both at the mines and at Eskom sites. Additional projects to decarbonise might consist of battery storage space or wind power, stated Eskom in a firm statement.

Exxaro as well as Seriti are the biggest coal providers to Eskom, supplying regarding 80% of Eskom's coal supply each year. By developing sustainable sources of energy at their Eskom-linked sites, the business aim to lower exhausts and save costs. They have devoted to beginning the projects instantly.

Solar has actually significantly been acknowledged as an effective as well as affordable means to reduced emissions at off-grid mining procedures. The mining sector overall make up 6% of globe power demand.

The suggested projects would decrease Seriti's emissions by 50% based on coal fired power generation, while Exxaro would certainly minimize discharges from one of its coal mines, Matla, by up to 70%.

"Eskom continues to explore methods to reduce the expense of coal provided to its power plant, and this investment enables it to advantage of the low cost of photovoltaic power," said its chief executive officer André de Ruyter.

The news follows Reuters reported that Eskom, which supplies more than 90% of South Africa's electrical energy, held "productive conversations" with Western environment agents from the UK, United States, Germany and also France concerning exactly how to minimizing discharges from its 15 coal-fired power stations.

Both Erraxo as well as Seritit recognised the issues with continued coal power yet stated its burning was essential for South Africa's power generation. Business heads likewise referenced a just shift to safeguard continued coal procedures.

" [Decarbonisation] needs to be performed in such a manner in which does not ruin our commercial base, or the lives of South Africans that rely upon our companies for jobs, venture as well as support: this is the very basis of a just shift," said Mike Teke, CEO of Seriti.

A number of mining firms are seeking options to their emissions problems. Anglo-Australian mining titan Rio Tinto is aiming to deploy 6GW of solar and also wind in Australia as part of a new strategy to decrease its carbon discharges by 50% by 2030, and also has actually signed power purchase agreements (PPA) with IPPs in Madagascar for its procedures there.

At the same time, BHP has actually accepted develop out two solar farms to power its procedures in Western Australia and extracting firm Centamin has gotten German programmer and also EPC specialist Juwi to design, supply and also build a solar-storage hybrid project at an off-grid gold mine in Egypt.