Tag Archives: Richard Doyle

JUWI’s renewable rollout in South Africa continues with Sibanye-Stillwater deployment

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JUWI Renewable Energies, a leading global solar, wind and hybrid project developer, EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) and operations and maintenance company, has announced that it has 400 MW of EPC projects in advanced stages of development for mines in South Africa.

The news follows the financial close of the 89 MW Castle Wind project by the African Infrastructure Investment Managers (AIIM) Consortium for Sibanye-Stillwater’s mining operations, a project initially developed by JUWI for the South African government’s Renewable Energy Independent Power Producers’ Programme (REI4P). The AIIM Consortium included African Clean Energy Developments as developer and Reatile as investment partner.

“We’re seeing a wave of formal requests for renewable energy projects from South African mines, largely driven by the energy crisis, commercial considerations and decarbonisation targets,” Richard Doyle, Managing Director, JUWI SA, said.

“The right regulation has been needed to translate this demand into actual projects for mines. The amendments to the licence-exemption threshold and ability to wheel electricity are now allowing us to pivot projects initially developed for REI4P, such as the Castle Wind project, into the private sector, making them a reality. This is a significant milestone for our team of experts who work tirelessly to advance the renewable energy transition in Africa.”

Wheeling is the act of transporting electricity from a generator to a remotely located end-user through the grid. With most large mines and energy users in South Africa lacking land for large-scale wind and solar projects, the ability to wheel electricity is essential for self generation, according to JUWI.

Chris Bellingham, Head of Project Development, JUWI, explained: “The ability to wheel power through the network combined with the far lower electricity tariffs of solar and wind projects, incentivises mines to either remotely generate their own electricity or purchase it from remote independent power producers, thereby sourcing generation from sites where the resource is stronger. This is a real win for mines, allowing them to save costs, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and when used in combination with backup technologies, avoid load shedding.”

Sumeet Ramandh, the project’s Development Manager, said  JUWI initiated the Castle Wind project in 2011 and, although there were extensive delays with the government’s procurement process, it remained dedicated to transforming the site into a notable renewable energy asset for South Africa.

“With the recent regulatory improvements, JUWI took the decision to sell the project to the AIIM Consortium, which secured an Eskom agreement to wheel energy from the wind farm to power Sibanye-Stillwater’s mining operations,” he said.

At the start of the year, JUWI reported that it had 4 GW of renewable energy projects in various stages of development across Africa, with another 1 GW to be initiated in 2023. The company also recently signed an EPC agreement with Pan African Resources to construct a 8.75 MW solar plant for the its Fairview mine.

JUWI and Pan African’s Elikhulu solar plant receives grid compliance from Eskom

Environmental, Mine operation news, Mining services, Power supply for mines, Precious metals, Sustainable mining, , , , ,

JUWI Renewable Energies and South Africa-based mid-tier gold producer, Pan African Resources, have announced that the 10 MW Elikhulu solar renewable energy plant at the Evander gold operations has become the first embedded project over 1 MW to receive full grid code compliance from utility Eskom.

This follows the South African government’s decision in 2021 to raise the licensing threshold for embedded generation projects from 1-100 MW, aimed at alleviating the energy crisis by unlocking private generation capacity. In order to attain grid compliance, projects need to demonstrate full compliance with the Renewable Power Plants Grid Connection Code, the companies explained.

Richard Doyle, Managing Director, JUWI, said: “We’re delighted that Elikhulu is the first behind-the-client metre large-scale project to get the stamp of approval from Eskom, which confirms that the project adhered to very rigorous grid connection standards. As the trailblazer leading the rollout of private generation by major energy users, Elikhulu will unlock significant new generation capacity and reduce pressure on the national grid, which contributes to fewer instances of loadshedding.”

Barry Naicker, Head of ESG at Pan African, said: “For Pan African Resources, mining is also about sustainability and going ‘beyond compliance’, which means that we are committed to rolling out renewable energy solutions at all our operations in South Africa. We’re grateful that the Elikhulu photovoltaic plant is online and operating efficiently, and pleased that it is the first project of its kind to be connected to the South African grid. This represents a major turning point in the country’s transition to clean energy.”

When the Elikhulu plant was initiated by Pan African, the licensing threshold was 10 MW. With the further increase of the licensing threshold to 100 MW, the mining company plans to expand the plant’s output to 22 MW in 2023 to further reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve efficiencies, which will reduce the cost of gold production, it says.

When the plant build was annoucned in 2020, Pan African said it would use bi-facial module technology to maximise its yield and be constructed on previously disturbed land owned by Evander Mines. It was to provide an estimated 30% of Elikhulu’s power requirement during daylight hours and was expected to materially reduce electricity costs at this operation.