Coal mining giant spending R25 billion to wave Eskom goodbye Myles Illidge

[Nat Quinn]

South African coal mining giant Seriti Resources is building a R4.8-billion wind farm with a capacity of 155MW in Bethal, Mpumalanga.

According to a Sunday Times report, the project is the first phase of its renewable energy plans, which will see it invest R25 billion in renewable energy over the next three years.

The first phase will have a capacity of 155W, and Seriti anticipates it will be complete by mid-July 2026. It will feature a R1-billion substation and 25 wind turbines.

Six further phases will bring Seriti’s renewable energy capacity to 900MW, comprising 750MW of wind and 150MW of solar generation and storage.

Seriti is constructing the plants to reduce its reliance on Eskom. Seriti Green, a majority-owned subsidiary of Seriti Resources, will head construction.

Seriti Green CEO Peter Venn says the R1-billion substation will be gifted to Eskom once complete.

“It becomes part of Eskom’s balance sheet, Eskom’s infrastructure and Eskom owns it and manages it going forward,” said Venn.

Seriti broke ground on the wind farm, which will be the largest in South Africa, in December 2023. The site is situated approximately 20km from its New Denmark mine.

Venn said the project will progress its plans to transition to cleaner energy sources and reduce its reliance on the national grid. It will create roughly 800 jobs.

While Eskom must make significant — and expensive — transmission grid upgrades in the Cape provinces, Mpumalanga has a surplus of connections that the coal-mining sector can exploit.

Venn said he anticipates “plenty of projects” to power mines in the area.

Seriti shareholders Standard Bank and Rand Merchant Bank are funding the 155MW wind project.

However, Venn said Seriti had “leveraged its balance sheet” to order key equipment, like transformers, to begin construction in December.

Peter Venn, Seriti Green CEO.

While the 155MW wind farm will be the country’s largest single-site private renewable energy plant, Red Cap Energy is currently building the largest renewable energy facility in South Africa.

It will comprise three wind farms with a combined capacity of 330MW.

Dubbed the Impofu project, construction began in March 2024, and Red Cap Energy anticipates it will start generating energy in 2025.

Unlike other wind farms in South Africa, which are more concentrated, Impofu will spread its 57 turbines across 12 pieces of private land.

“At a length of 116 kilometres, the project also boasts the longest privately permitted powerline developed for any renewable energy project in the country,” it said.

The turbines will be built using locally made concrete towers at their bases, with hubs 120 metres above the ground. Their blade lengths will measure 81.5 metres, and the total rotor diameter will be 163 metres.

The turbines will stand roughly 201.5 metres tall, measured from the ground to the tip of the blade at the highest point of rotation. They can generate up to 5.8MW each.

 

source:Coal mining giant spending R25 billion to wave Eskom goodbye (mybroadband.co.za)

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