US-based conglomerate Tronox Holdings has become the latest company looking to deploy renewable energy at its mining operations in South Africa.
This, as mining companies shift to renewable energy sources in a bid to move away from embattled power utility Eskom.
The organisations are responding to president Cyril Ramaphosa’s amendment of Schedule 2 of the Electricity Regulation Act to increase the energy regulator’s licensing threshold for embedded generation projects from 1MW to 100MW.
Tronox, an integrated manufacturer of titanium dioxide pigment, says it has entered into a long-term power purchase agreement (PPA) with local independent power producer SOLA Group, to provide 200MW of solar power to Tronox’s mines and smelters in SA.
Last week, Pilanesberg Platinum Mines, a subsidiary of Sedibelo Platinum, appointed the juwi/Sturdee Energy consortium as preferred bidder to supply renewable energy to the mining operation.
The parties signed a memorandum of understanding and will now commence negotiations towards a PPA.
The PPA is for a combination of solar PV and wind systems to power the 40MW mine load via a wheeling arrangement from two separate sites, one in Limpopo and one in the Western Cape.
This project will supply 55% to 60% of the mine’s energy needs, and is planned to commence operation in 2024.
It also involves the development and construction of a 35MW solar plant at, or adjacent to, the Pilanesberg mine for the direct provision of power to meet the mine’s growing energy needs, and is planned to commence operation in 2026.
In September last year, mining company Exxaro started developing a 70MW solar project, which will supply renewable energy to its coal operations at the Grootegeluk complex in Limpopo.
The South African government has also commenced with the repurposing of ageing coal power plants by adding solar photovoltaic technology and batteries, as it gradually moves away from coal as a source of power.
In a statement yesterday, Tronox says it anticipates its project to be fully implemented by the fourth quarter of 2023.
It notes the energy will be provided to Tronox through wheeling agreements, which allow Eskom to be paid for the maintenance and upkeep of its infrastructure to transport the energy.
“Tronox’s renewable energy project with SOLA Group will reduce our global carbon emissions by approximately 13% compared to our 2019 baseline, and has the full support of our board of directors and senior management,” says Melissa Zona, Tronox senior vice-president for external affairs and chief sustainability officer.
The projects will be majority owned and operated by SOLA Group and will deliver around 540GWh of energy to five mining operations through long-term PPAs.
“We are delighted to see that large scale energy consumers like Tronox are making use of the opportunity to convert to clean and cost-effective energy,” says Chris Haw, director and co-founder at the SOLA Group.
“These types of projects are the fastest way to bring new generation capacity online and not only contribute to closing the electricity supply gap in our country, but also support the much-needed transition to clean energy and modernisation of our electricity grid.”
According to SOLA Group, the execution of the agreements comes as SA is faced with further load-shedding and is desperately in need of extra capacity to be added to its electricity network.
It points out that the projects are expected to start construction in Q3 2022.
The concept of wheeling was first implemented in SA by SOLA Group at scale with Amazon Web Services in 2021. It allows projects in advanced stages of development to contract with private energy consumers, thereby shortening permitting, procurement and construction timelines.
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