Harmony Gold is closer to its goal of reducing electricity costs and improving power reliability at its gold mines in South Africa. The company will install 26MW of solar PV power at three gold mines located in the Free State province.
In a June presentation on electricity demand management, Harmony had identified solar photovoltaic (PV) installations as a future initiative to cut electricity costs. The company’s electricity portion of the cost (excluding capital) rose to 15% in FY2018 from 8% in FY2007.
Daniel Goldstuck, Head of Energy Storage and Microgrid Services at the SOLA Group, announced last week the signing of a heads of terms agreement with a consortium to install three solar PV plants at Harmony Gold’s mines in Free State, according to miningweekly.com. The SOLA Group is a South African renewable energy company operating across Africa.
When combined, the three solar installations would generate 26 MW.
National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa)’s head of licensing, compliance, and dispute resolution, Dennis Seemela announced in May that the regulator would consider license applications for small-scale power plants in the capacity between 1 MW and 10 MW.
Harmony Gold CEO Peter Steenkamp said during a presentation in August that the company had applied.
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