Africa-Press – South-Africa. Multinational energy giant, TotalEnergies, has signed corporate power purchase agreements (PPAs) for two projects to provide Sasol and Air Liquide with 260MW of renewable energy over the next 20 years.
TotalEnergies announced it would develop a 120 MW solar plant and a 140 MW wind farm in the Western Cape to supply around 850 GWh of green electricity per year to the Sasol’s Secunda site in Mpumalanga where Air Liquide operates the biggest oxygen production site in the world.
The PPAs with Sasol and Air Liquide have been signed with a consortium comprised of TotalEnergies Marketing South Africa (70%), renewable energy developer Mulilo (17%) and a to-be-announced B-BBEE partner (13%).
The two projects are subject to regulatory approvals and are expected to be operational in 2025.
The PPAs signal progress in Sasol’s plans to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from its South African operations by at least 30% by 2030, off a 2017 baseline.
Sasol is the largest emitter of GHG in South Africa after Eskom, and its Secunda plant is currently the largest single-site emitter of GHG globally.
Sasol and Air Liquide have committed to a joint initiative to procure a whopping 1 200MW of renewable energy capacity by 2030. In January, the two announced their joint signing of two long-term PPAs with Enel Green Power for a 220MW wind project to supply Secunda.
Sasol has also signed a PPA with Msenge Emoyeni Wind Farm for a 69MW project to supply Sasolburg, which is expected to be online within the first quarter of 2024. This power supply will be key for the synthetic fuels and chemicals group to achieve first production of green hydrogen as part of its ambition to lead the development of a green hydrogen economy in Southern Africa.
TotalEnergies said the agreements demonstrate its positioning to contribute to the evolution of the energy mix in South Africa and noted the projects would directly impact the local community through job creation.
“Power generation in South Africa is still 80% based on coal, and power cuts occur daily. With these developments, we are proud to support Air Liquide and Sasol for their supply of green electricity,” said Vincent Stoquart, Senior Vice president, Renewables at TotalEnergies. “Meanwhile, we are pleased to contribute to South Africa’s energy transition, which consists of increasing its share of renewables and gas as an alternative to coal.
Stoquart said there is a dynamic market for corporate PPAs in South Africa, and TotalEnergies is keen to take “a strong leadership position”.
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