There has been a surge of activity in big renewable projects being built mainly for mining companies. Since April, I’ve counted 7 projects with a total installed capacity of around 900MW linked to mines.
For starters there was the public launch of Seriti Green’s 155MW Ummbila Emoyeni Wind Farm in Mpumalanga. Seriti (not its subsidiary Seriti Green) supplies coal to Eskom’s power stations in Mpumalanga.
The wind farm is phase one of a much bigger project that will eventually comprise five wind farms, one solar photovoltaic (PV) facility and a battery storage facility, says Seriti Green. All are placed in a part of the country that definitely doesn’t have grid access problems.
A third of the electricity generated will power Seriti’s mining operations; the rest will be traded via energy traders.
Then there’s Exxaro Resources, which, through its renewable energy subsidiary Cennergi, developed the 68MW Lephalale Solar Project in Limpopo to supply its Grootgeluk coal mine.
Cennergi is also developing the 140MW Karreebosch Wind Farm in the Northern Cape to supply Northam Platinum.
The 520MW Koruson 2 energy cluster – the Usobomvu and Hartebeesthoek wind farms and the Mooi Plaats solar facility – will supply Valterra Platinum, Kumba Iron Ore and De Beers.
The 148MW Bolobedu Solar Project in Limpopo has a power purchase agreement with Richards Bay Minerals.
It’s also worth mentioning another big industrial buyer of renewable energy that’s not a mine. Sasol and Air Liquide in Secunda have power purchase agreements for the power to be generated by the 300MW Naos 1 solar project, which will also have 660MWh of battery storage, as well as the 330MW Impofu Wind Farm Complex (three wind farms in the Eastern Cape).
All together that’s 1.3GW of renewable capacity.
On the road again
Here are some fun facts for people interested in electric vehicles. Hanno Labuschagne at MyBroadband has compared how many kilometres you can drive on R100 in a petrol car compared with an electric car. The International Energy Agency calculates South Africa’s average petrol consumption at around 7.1ℓ/100km. “A vehicle with that consumption would be able to cover 55km on R100’s unleaded 95 petrol bought inland,” says Labuschagne. The EVDatabase calculates the average consumption of the many electric vehicles it tracks at about 19kWh/100km, he says. So, an EV with that usage would be able to cover 115km with R100 of energy from Eskom Direct on Homepower 4. Electric vehicles are cheaper to run on average. But given the different prices for electricity in this country, he also compared electric vehicles with petrol in Joburg, Cape Town, Ethekwini and Tshwane and put them in a table. The distance on R100 range from 103km to 276km. Read it for yourself.
RENEWABLE PIN-UP
Hartenbos Waste Water Treatment Works Solar PV Plant and Micro-grid in Mossel Bay Municipality in the Western Cape is a hybrid energy system, which was designed to keep the wastewater treatment plant running even through Stage 6 loadshedding. Built on 3.5 hectares of municipal land, the system was completed in September 2025 and began generating power in October. It normally operates alongside the Eskom grid, but if that grid goes down, a battery energy storage system takes over, backed by solar generation during the day and diesel generators as a last resort. The system also exports stored battery power into Mossel Bay’s grid during evening peak hours, reducing the municipality’s demand on Eskom. The project took 18 months to complete at a total cost of R112-million. Solareff won an award from the SA Photovoltaic Industry Association last month for its engineering, procurement and construction work on the project.
Location: Hartenbos, Western Cape
Size: 3.5 hectares
System:Hybrid grid-tied micro-grid with solar PV, battery storage, diesel backup
Capacity: 2.112 MVA of solar
BESS Inverter Station Capacity: 2.75 MVA
Battery Storage: 4,586 kWh
Number of solar PV panels installed:4,536
NEWS WRAP
🧪 Envision Energy, a Chinese green technology company, and Sasol are collaborating on a design study of a potential green hydrogen system at Sasol’s Sasolburg operation. The study will assess how integrated renewables, energy storage and electrolyser technologies could support cost-competitive green hydrogen production at Sasolburg. Minister of Electricity and Energy, Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, recently visited Envision’s Chifeng Hydrogen Net Zero Industrial Park in Inner Mongolia, as part of the South Africa-China Energy Investment Conference.
☀️ The 50MW Ilikwa solar PV facility near Parys in the Free State has reached commercial operation. The private generation project developed by Mainstream Renewable Power will supply electricity to multiple commercial and industrial customers in South Africa through flexible short-term power purchase agreements.
💨 Electricity trader and aggregator Envusa Energy has announced that the Hartebeesthoek Wind Farm in the Eastern Cape has started operating commercially. Envusa Energy is a joint venture between Anglo American and EDF Power Solutions. 130MW of the facility’s total 140MW capacity is online, with the remaining 10MW expected to be operational in September. Hartebeesthoek is the last of three facilities in the Koruson 2 renewable energy cluster to start operating. The other two projects are the 240MW Mooi Plaats Solar PV facility in the Northern Cape and the 140MW Umsombomvu Wind Farm in the Eastern Cape.
☀️⛏️ Envusa Energy has also reached financial close on another of its projects – its first utility-scale behind-the-meter (off-grid) solar PV project – on a rehabilitated mine dump at Kumba Iron Ore’s Sishen Mine near Kathu in the Northern Cape. The 63MW AC facility will export the electricity it generates directly into the system of Sishen Mine.
💡 Three hundred solar lights have been installed in the Witsand informal settlement in Atlantis near Cape Town by nonprofits People’s Environmental Planning and LightUp. The lights were placed along critical travel routes, in crime hotspots and along pathways identified with the help of the community, for whom the lack of public lighting was a major safety concern. The project was funded by Global Business Solutions.
⚡️ The Western Cape is on track to install 1,800MW of new power to the provincial grid in the 2026/27 financial year, said Alwie Lester, the special adviser on energy, at the Western Cape Integrated Energy and Water Council. The Western Cape’s Energy Resilience Programme (WCERP) has set a target of 5,700MW of new energy generation by 2035.
💨 The first 25 turbines of Seriti Green’s 155MW Ummbila Emoyeni Wind Farm in Mpumalanga have entered commercial operation. The wind farm is the first phase of a planned 900MW renewables rollout by Seriti Green in Mpumalanga. Seriti Resources coal mining operations will be one of the anchor customers for the electricity generated by the wind farm. Power purchase agreements have also been signed with energy traders Energy Exchange, NOA and Etana Energy. The turbines were supplied by Chinese turbine company Goldwind. StefanuttiStocks did the earthworks, wind turbine foundations, internal roads, cable reticulation and electrical infrastructure that connects the turbines to the Eskom grid.
☀️🔋 SolarAfrica, an independent power producer and energy trader, has partnered with MPower and Fledge Capital to develop the Highveld Hybrid Energy Project near Emahleni, Mpumalanga. The project will comprise a 184MW solar PV plant and a 300MWh battery energy storage system that is expected to start supplying customers with electricity through wheeling in 2029.
⚡️ NOA, an independent power producer, energy trader and aggregator, has signed a wheeling agreement to supply renewable energy to Idwala Industrial Holdings, an industrial minerals producer. The agreement will help reduce costs.
INSIGHTS & EVENTS
📈 The Western Cape government has produced a public dashboard showing projects led by the provincial government, local governments or the private sector. It aims to give an overview of the energy situation in local municipalities.
💻 Solar Funding 101 webinar. Fund manager Jaltech and EE Business Solutions is hosting a free 30-minute webinar on 28 August at 12pm to help businesses, EPCs, solar developers and energy professionals better understand the financing landscape for solar projects. Jonty Sacks, a partner at Jaltech, will provide a practical overview of the commercial solar funding market and explain how to identify the most appropriate funding solution. Find out more here.