The global solar, wind and hybrid project developer, EPC and operations and maintenance company, JUWI Renewable Energies, has announced that it currently has 400 MW of EPC projects in advanced stages of development for mines in South Africa.
This comes just after the financial close of the 89 MW Castle Wind project by the African Infrastructure Investment Managers (AIIM) Consortium for Sibanye-Stillwater’s mining operations, which is a project that was initially developed by JUWI for the South African government’s Renewable Energy Independent Power Producers’ Programme (REI4P). The AIIM Consortium had African Clean Energy Developments as developer and Reatile as investment partner included.
The Managing Director for JUWI SA, Richard Doyle said they’re seeing a huge wave of formal requests for renewable energy projects from the mines in South Africa, and they are mostly driven by the energy crisis, commercial considerations and decarbonisation targets,
“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.” – he added.
Because the largest mines and energy users in South Africa lacking land for large-scale wind and solar projects, the ability to wheel electricity is very important for self-generation.
According to the Head of Project Development at JUWI, Chris Bellingham, being able 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 (IPPs), thereby sourcing generation from sites where the resource is stronger. For mines, this is a huge win because it allows them to save costs, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and when used together with backup power technologies, avoid load shedding.
The project’s development manager, Sumeet Ramandh, said they initiated the Castle Wind project back in 2011. Even though there have been extensive delays with the government’s procurement process, they remained dedicated to transforming the site into a notable renewable energy asset for South Africa. In addition, Sumeet said: “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.”
ACED Senior Manager, Stephnie Kot said the company is very proud to have led the Castle Project to financial close and into construction. This is the second private, wheeled wind farm in South Africa and they extend their thanks and congratulations to all involved in the transaction, including JUWI as the original initiator of the Castle Wind Project.
Investment Principal at AIIM, Sechaba Selemela said AIIM has invested in the project through the IDEAS Managed Fund, which is one of South Africa’s largest domestic infrastructure equity funds. They are committed to investing in state-of-the-art renewable energy assets that address South Africa‘s energy crisis and deliver strong returns for their investors.
At the beginning 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.
