Anglo American and EDF form new company for renewable energy in South Africa

Mining giant Anglo American says it will form a new joint company with Electricite de France SA subsidiary EDF Renewables, named Envusa Energy, to develop a regional renewable energy ecosystem in South Africa.

In March 2022, the two companies signed a Memorandum of Understanding to explore the ecosystem’s development, designed to meet Anglo American’s operational power requirements in South Africa and support the resilience of the local electricity supply systems and the wider decarbonisation of energy in the country.

The RREE is also expected to catalyse economic activity in South Africa’s renewable energy sector, supporting the country’s broader just energy transition, Anglo American said.

Envusa Energy will launch a mature pipeline of more than 600 MW of wind and solar projects in South Africa – a major first step towards the development of an ecosystem that is expected to generate 3-5 GW of renewable energy by 2030.

This first phase of Envusa Energy’s renewables projects is expected to be fully funded – and ready for construction to begin in 2023.

Envusa Energy is expected to supply Anglo American with a blend of renewable energy generated on Anglo American’s sites and renewable energy transmitted via the national grid.

This energy portfolio approach will aggregate energy from geographically dispersed renewable generating assets and allocate this energy optimally to meet the load demand for Anglo American’s sites.

The rollout of the RREE will also serve as a clean energy source for the production of green hydrogen for Anglo American’s nuGen Zero Emission Haulage Solution (ZEHS) – a planned fleet of hydrogen-powered ultra-class mine haul trucks.

Envusa Energy is also exploring a range of community partnership models that will enable host communities to share in the benefits created by the development of the RREE, along its value chain.

Read: World’s biggest hydrogen trucks start work at Anglo American