South Africa’s petro-chemical giant Sasol signs three renewable energy agreements

Petroleum giant Sasol has just signed three power purchase deals or agreements for the supply of renewable energy.

Sasol is in pursuit of reducing its greenhouse emissions by at least 30% by the year 2030 as per a statement from the company.

It has come to the attention of this website that, the petrochemical company has indicated that it has reached a long agreement on a long-term PPA with Msenge Emoyeni Wind Farm for the supply of 69MW of wind-powered renewable energy to its Sasolburg operations.

Moneyweb also published that the agreement is key to “achieving the first production of green hydrogen generated from renewable energy sources at Sasolburg and progressing our ambition to lead the development of a green hydrogen economy in Southern Africa.”

Sasol further announced that the renewable electricity capacity is expected to become operational in the first quarter of FY24.

Together with industrial gases company Air Liquide, Sasol has signed two long-term PPAs with Enel Green Power for the supply of 220MW of wind-powered renewable power to its Secunda operations.

“The concluded agreements are the first as part of a joint procurement initiative with Air Liquide and demonstrates Sasol’s commitment to procuring 1 200MW of renewable energy capacity by 2030,” it adds.

“Renewable power is a key lever towards Sasol’s GHG emission reduction, as part of our transition towards a more sustainable product portfolio.”

Moreover, Sasol expects that the projects will be operational in 2025, and in a previous post, this website posted that Sasol has announced a partnership with ArcelorMittal South Africa to explore carbon capture technology.

BusinessTech Africa gathered that Sasol and steelmaker ArcelorMittal South Africa will also explore steel production using green hydrogen.

Green hydrogen, produced from splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen using renewable energy sources such as solar and wind, is considered a cleaner energy source for the future, but the technology is still in its infancy and relatively expensive.

Known as the world’s biggest producer of fuel products and chemicals from coal, Sasol, is transitioning away from fossil fuels as part of its decarbonisation plan.