By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Sasol South Africa has signed three power purchase agreements (PPAs) for the supply of renewable power in pursuit of reducing its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by at least 30% by 2030.
Sasol said in a statement that it is partnering with French gas company Air Liquide to source 220MW of renewable power from two wind energy projects to be developed by Enel Green Power, a unit of Italy-based Enel. The two projects will supply power to Sasol’s Secunda site, where Air Liquide also has oxygen production operations.
The 220MW wind powered projects are scheduled to be operational in 2025 and are part of a plan to procure 900MW renewable energy for Secunda, Sasol said.
“Sasol and Air Liquide’s efforts to procure a total of 900MW of renewable energy to decarbonise our respective operations at Secunda is another step towards Sasol’s aim to procure 1.2GW of renewable energy capacity from independent power producers by 2030,” said Priscillah Mabelane, executive vice president of Sasol’s energy business.
Sasol also said it has signed a long-term agreement with Msenge Emoyeni Wind Farm in the Eastern Cape for the supply of 69MW of wind power to its Sasolburg chemicals manufacturing operations, where it plans to produce green hydrogen.
Green hydrogen is produced by splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen using renewable energy sources such as solar and wind and is considered a potentially cleaner future energy source.
The Msenge wind power project is expected to start delivering energy in the first quarter of 2024.
Sasol’s recent productions and sales metrics for the six months ended 31 December 2022, paint a positive picture for the company, with it remaining well positioned despite the negative impact of weaker global economic growth.
According to the company, its chemicals business continued to face challenging market conditions, including the macro-economic environment downturn, inflationary pressures, Covid-19 impacts in China and sustained higher energy prices in Europe.
“In addition, production and supply chain challenges in South Africa impacted our ability to produce and move product to customers,” Sasol reported.
“Despite these challenges, external sales revenue for H1 FY23 was only 2% lower compared to H1 FY22, driven by lower sales volumes. H1 FY23 sales volumes were 5% lower than H1 FY22, largely due to lower Eurasia volumes, offset by higher sales volumes in America.”
The average basket price increased by 3% from H1 FY22 but decreased by 14 compared to Q1 FY23 due to the challenging economic environment.