South Africa-based coal producer Seriti Resources’ green energy unit subsidiary has plans to build a wind farm in Mpumalanga, reported Bloomberg.
Seriti Resources has signed a long term agreement to draw power from the farm.
This 155MW plant will be built by the subsidiary, Seriti Green.
This project is claimed to become the country’s largest wind farm, and will be built with an investment of approximately $235m.
It will be built in the country’s coal-rich Mpumalanga province and will provide power to Seriti Resources’ coal mining operations.
This plant will cater to around 75% of the power required for the company’s operations.
Seriti Resources plans to build an infrastructure to provide 900MW of green energy over the next few years.
Furthermore, the company’s renewable resources unit is under discussion with customers to purchase the power produced by the infrastructure.
Since 2008, electricity shortages have severely impacted South African mining activities due to state-owned utility Eskom Holdings’ failure to meet demand.
As the country proceeds to impose a carbon tax and works to reach emission reduction goals, producers of the fossil fuel are considering switching to renewable energy.
Seriti Green CEO Peter Venn was quoted by the media outlet as saying that renewable energy from its wind project will work out to be as much as 40% less expensive than purchasing power from Eskom.
Last month, the state-owned utility’s secured approval from the regulator to increase power prices by the most in over ten years.
