Exxaro plans a 100MW battery and a second phase at its Lephalale solar plant

Ben Magara used the opening of the 68MW array beside Grootegeluk to set out what follows it. Cennergi holds close to 500MW of wind and solar today and expects nearly 1,000MW by the end of next year, on the way to about 1,600MW by 2030.

Grootegeluk mine’s electricity bill is more than R100 million a year lighter since a 68MW solar array began feeding its main substation directly, and Exxaro now wants a 100MW battery standing beside it.

That was the news Ben Magara brought to the official opening of the Lephalale Solar Project on 15 July, along with a second phase of the array itself. Neither carries a published cost or date. The plant has been running commercially since April, 129,024 panels across 185 hectares of Limpopo, supplying about 30% of what the mine draws in a year and cutting its Scope 2 emissions by roughly 17%.

Magara gave the wider figures too. Cennergi, the renewables business Exxaro owns outright, holds close to 500MW of wind and solar today. He expects almost 1,000MW by the end of next year and about 1,600MW by 2030.

Some of that arrived by purchase rather than construction. Cennergi took majority stakes in the 138MW Gouda wind farm and the 75MW Sishen solar park from Spain’s Acciona Energía last November, in a transaction worth between R1.7 billion and R1.8 billion.

“The energy transition can’t just be about replacing one source of energy with another,” said Danie du Plessis, who runs Cennergi. “It’s about improving operational resilience, protecting margins and long-term competitiveness.” Lephalale is built behind the meter to that end, its output reaching the mine without crossing the public network, though up to 20MW can go out to Eskom when the array produces more than Grootegeluk can absorb. The purchase agreement runs for 25 years and sits with the mine rather than a utility.

Exxaro is the second South African coal producer to build renewables at this scale for its own mines. Seriti Green’s Peter Venn told ENN at the Africa Energy Forum why the country’s largest wind development is going up in the middle of Mpumalanga’s coal country, with coal workers retrained for wind. Magara’s ambition runs to the whole group. “The strategy for Cennergi is to have all Exxaro’s coal mines powered by green energy by 2030,” he said.

Photo: Exxaro