Mining companies are leading the charge into renewable energy.
The Southern African Power Pool is seeing a lot of activity. The legislative and regulatory restructuring process in South Africa finally seems to have gained some impetus, while longer term strengthening of the grid and the construction of interconnectors between member countries continues. Additional solar photovoltaic (PV), wind and hydroelectric power plants are in construction.
Mining and cement companies are stepping up. At AmaranthCX we put together an informal log of individually identifiable projects, and very quickly broke through the 1GW mark. [UPDATE - with the addition of First Quantum's Kansanshi mine's projects, Harmony Golds' Free State projects and Kumba Iron Ore's Sishen project the number is now over 1.5GW]
There is still plenty to come as companies in manganese, iron ore and steel are still to join the party with specific details on individual projects.
ArcelorMittal SA has requested proposals for 6 PV plants, Kumba for two and Glencore has asked for proposals too. In Zimbabwe, Rio Zim is targeting 4 PV plants totaling 180MW.
The SA chrome smelting industry also has a lot to do as they have promised 750MW worth of projects, but only Samancor's Tubatse 60MW has made it on to the list so far.
Individually identifiable projects are expected to emerge from all these processes soon.
For those interested the excel file can be downloaded here.
For more information the Southern African Power Pool - AmaranthCX's interactive Google Earth map is available for purchase here.