Johannesburg - Sibanye Gold, the biggest producer of the metal in South Africa, intends to become energy-independent “over the next few years” as Eskom struggles to supply the economy with enough power.
The Westonaria-based company said on Thursday it was considering investing in solar power and building its own coal-fired plants of 200 to 600 megawatts to reduce reliance on “inconsistent and increasingly expensive” electricity.
The investment in solar power would cost about R3 billion and generate 150 megawatts, Sibanye said; the company’s overall demand is 500 megawatts.
Eskom is struggling to meet demand after it failed to invest in generation in the 20 years following the country’s first democratic elections. The utility requires industrial users to cut consumption by as much as 20 percent when it’s running short of power, while residential consumers have had 11 days of rolling blackouts this month.
GREEN ENERGY
Sibanye said: “Ongoing delays at Eskom’s new capacity-build projects and a lack of critical maintenance at its existing stations has resulted in regular supply interruption, which is likely to continue for the foreseeable future,” .
It’s power costs will swell to 20 percent of overall expenditure in 2015 from about nine percent in 2007, a year before the South Africa’s power shortages idled mines and smelters for five days.
Chief Executive Officer Neal Froneman said Sibanye would aim to finance the plants in part through loans from development banks that focused on infrastructure projects
“There are certain banks that will be very partial to green energy,” he said. “We’ve done quite a lot on that financing model and that’s why the R3 billion rand is not a capital overhang on our balance sheet.”
Bloomberg