“Our strategy is to work hand-in-hand with Eskom and not to kick them out of business,” he said. “We still need them in the evenings, the coal-powered stations are helping the mines to carry on.”
The plant was initially planned to have a capacity of 40MW, but four months after Nersa’s approval, the South African government increased the embedded generation threshold to 100MW. Following an additional optimisation study, Gold Fields increased the plant’s planned capacity to 50MW, with the potential to expand to 60MW.
South Deep’s Khanyisa solar power plant will consist of more than 100,000 photovoltaic panels and, occupying an area of 105ha or roughly 200 soccer fields. When fully operational, the plant will account for 24% of South Deep’s annual electricity consumption. Pan African Resources has commissioned a solar energy plant and said it is on track to produce around 10MW of renewable energy at its Evander mines in Mpumalanga.