Anglo-American and EDF Renewables have agreed to build a regional renewable energy ecosystem (RREE) in South Africa. They have done this by signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to create a company called Envusa Energy that they will both own.
Anglo-American’s operational power requirements in South Africa were met in March 2022 when the two companies signed a Memorandum of Understanding to explore the development of the ecosystem. This was done to support the resilience of the local electricity supply systems and the wider decarbonization of energy in the country.
The RREE is also expected to increase economic activity in South Africa’s renewable energy sector, which will help with the country’s larger energy transition.
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Envusa Energy is taking a critical first step toward establishing an ecosystem that is anticipated to generate between 3 and 5 GW of renewable energy by the year 2030. The company is unveiling a mature pipeline of wind and solar projects in South Africa with a combined capacity of more than 600MW. It is anticipated that this first phase of Envusa Energy’s renewable energy projects will be fully funded – including by attracting debt financing, which is typical for high-quality energy infrastructure projects – and ready for construction to begin in the year 2023. This goal will be reached by getting debt financing, which is common for projects that improve energy infrastructure.
Energy systems will operate mines
It is anticipated that the new company, which will be jointly owned, will supply Anglo American with a combination of renewable energy that will be generated on sites controlled by Anglo American as well as renewable energy that will be transferred via the national grid.
This energy portfolio solution will collect energy from renewable generating assets that are in different parts of the world. This energy will then be redistributed in the most efficient way possible to meet the load demand at all Anglo-American locations.
“This is a significant milestone in Anglo American’s global decarbonization journey and another step forward for South Africa’s clean energy future,” stated Nolitha Fakude, Chair of Anglo American’s Management Board in South Africa. We are making a lot of progress toward our goal of carbon-neutral operations by the year 2040. At the same time, our responsible approach is helping South Africa make a just energy transition.
“We think that the switch to a cleaner energy system gives South Africa and the rest of the region a new chance to build a clean, inclusive energy ecosystem that can create a lot of new economic opportunities.”
Tristan de Drouas, the CEO of EDF Renewables in South Africa, said, “This 600MW first tranche of projects will be added to the almost 1GW that EDF Renewables will be building or operating in the country by 2023. This includes 420MW of wind projects in REIPPP Bid Window 5, whose PPAs were signed with Eskom and the DMRE on September 22, 2022. “
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Envusa Energy will promote environmentally friendly hydrogen.
In addition, the rollout of the RREE will serve as a clean energy source for the production of green hydrogen for Anglo American’s nuGen Zero Emission Haulage Solution (ZEHS), which is a planned fleet of hydrogen-powered ultra-class mine haul trucks. This will lead to a big drop in diesel emissions on-site, which is a step toward a future with no carbon emissions, and it will also help South Africa’s Hydrogen Valley grow.
Anglo-American and EDF Renewables have joined forces to develop Envusa Energy to contribute to South Africa’s efforts toward achieving its economic transformation and empowerment goals. It is expected that Envusa Energy will start looking for a good Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) partner in the fourth quarter of 2022.
Envusa Energy is also looking into different community partnerships to ensure that host communities get the most out of RREE development across its entire value chain. This is in line with both companies commitment to a fair energy transition.
