[miningmx] — EXXARO Resources would contemplate more partnerships with India’s
Tata Power, the company with which it had launched energy venture
Cennergi, CEO Sipho Nkosi said on Wednesday.
Speaking at the official unveiling of Cennergi in Sandton, Nkosi said the partners
would “in time put [their] hats on’ as opportunities arose. “Maybe in furnaces,
mining, trading,’ Nkosi said, “anything is possible.’
Joining Tata Power in Cennergi gives Exxaro access to India’s largest integrated
power company, which boasts an installed generation capacity of close to 5,300 MW
in that country alone.
Cennergi is a 50:50 clean energy joint venture between the two companies that
would focus on cleaner electricity generation projects in South Africa, Botswana and
Namibia.
According to CEO Thomas Garner, Cennergi has an “aspirational target’ to generate
16 GW of power by 2025. He said the pace of progress would depend on how
successful it would be at managing the regulatory process.
It sees its mix offering consisting of 40% gas, 45% renewables and 15% coal.
Exxaro said in February, at its full-year results presentation, that the development of
an energy division was one of four pillars on which its business growth rested. It
submitted five proposals in the second window of submission which closed on March
5 through the Energy Department’s “Request for Qualification and Proposals for new
Generation Capacity’. The South African government is in the process of procuring
3,725 MW of renewable energy electricity from the private sector.
Cennergi’s first five projects entail two solar projects and three wind projects – the
Letsasi solar project close to Vryburg in North West (11 MW), the Tiqua wind project
along the west coast of the Western Cape (40 MW), the Tsitsikamma Community
wind project (95 MW) and Amakhala Emoyeni wind project (139 MW) in the
Eastern Cape, as well as the Lephalale solar project in Limpopo (30 MW).
