Richards Bay Minerals signs wind PPA for 140 MW in S Africa

Richards Bay Minerals (RBM), a Rio Tinto Plc (LON:RIO) company, said on Thursday that it has signed a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA) to off-take electricity generated by a new 140-MW wind farm in South Africa.

The power will be sourced from the Khangela Emoyeni Wind Farm, which its promoters just started building in the Western Cape and Northern Cape provinces.

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The PPA was co-signed by African Clean Energy Developments (ACED), the IDEAS Fund, which is a South African infrastructure equity fund, investment holding company Reatile Group, and Rand Merchant Bank. EIMS Africa will serve as the asset manager for the project.

These same stakeholders were behind a recently closed PPA with South Africa-based miner and metals processing group Sibanye Stillwater Ltd (JSE:SSW) in relation to the 140-MW Umsinde Emoyeni wind project located on the border between Northern Cape and Western Cape.

According to RBM, the Khangela Emoyeni Wind Farm is expected to be capable of generating around 460 GWh per year, enabling the mineral sands miner to cut annual carbon emissions by 20% and to reduce existing consumption of traditional energy by 26%.

Electricity from the wind farm site to RBM’s operations located in Richards Bay, KwaZulu-Natal, will be transmitted by utility company Eskom under a wheeling agreement.

The wind farm is expected to reach commercial operation within 28 months, RBM said.

RBM’s operations will also be powered by the Bolobedu solar farm in Limpopo province thanks to a PPA with French power producer Voltalia SA (EPA:VLTSA). Together, the Khangela Emoyeni wind farm and the Bolobedu Solar plant will supply around 42% of RBM’s existing energy needs, the miner said.