- In an interview with Reuters on Friday, Eskom’s new CEO, Dan Marokane said that they will meet their 2030 carbon emmissions targets.
“We have a target that is clear to be met by 2030. That is the 71-million tons equivalent of CO2 (reduction). That target remains. We will meet it,” said Marokane.
Marokane said targets would nevertheless be achieved by curbing the emissions of three of these power stations to meet about half the planned reductions and from “other existing stations within the fleet”, for the other half. This would be made possible by a more aggressive rollout of renewable capacity than previously planned so that less coal needed to burned.
“We’re going to build up our own renewable portfolio, and we’ll be doing it now rather than later. That’s our focus,” he said.
Speaking to the South African National Energy Association last week, Marokane said that the board has decided to build their own renewable energy projects on land next to their power stations instead of leasing the land to IPP’s to develop projects. The idea is to have these plants fully commissioned before a decision is made to close coal fired power stations, ensuring a just transition for workers. The move is likely to leave independent power producers who participated in the land lease programme stranded. Read more
Eskom has kicked off this strategy by releasing an EPC tender in April for the construction of a 75MW solar farm at the Lethabo Power Station. Read more
“We have had to do some rethinking in terms of the strategy that we may have articulated before and that is to decouple the implementation of renewables programme from the shutting down of power stations,” said Marokane.
In related news, South Africa’s Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, Ms Barbara Creecy, will allow five of Eskom’s ageing power plants to exceed minimum emissions standards for five years after the country implements a limit on plant emissions in 2025. This means that the five coal power plants namely; Hendrina, Grootvlei, Arnot, Camden, and Kriel are allowed to exceed minimum emissions standards until 2030. Creecy said she based her decision on a report which said that closing the power plants could “plunge the country into darkness.” The country has been load shedding free for over 86 days. Read more
Author: Bryan Groenendaal
