Anglo American’s plans to target carbon neutrality at its mining operations will bolster South Africa’s renewable electricity output and provide a major boost to private generation.
Anglo and Électricité de France have agreed jointly to develop on-site and off-site solar and wind farms with 3GW to 5GW of production capacity over the next decade, the companies said in a statement on Friday. They also intend to establish storage facilities and help bolster local manufacturing.
South Africa depends on state-owned Eskom’s coal-fired plants for almost all of its electricity. A government initiative to procure power from private producers initially gathered momentum after it was introduced in 2011 but then lost traction due to policy uncertainty and other delays.
The government has committed to revive the programme as power outages continue to hobble the economy, and last year granted licence exemptions for private projects generating as much as 100MW. The country needs between 4GW and 6GW of additional capacity to realise a secure supply, according to Eskom. — (c) 2022 Bloomberg LP