CONTENT POD 5: Hybrid and Utility Scale Renewables for African Mines

HYBRID AND UTILTY SCALE RENEWABLES FOR AFRICAN MINES

The fifth content pod presented at the Energy and Mines Virtual World Congress 2020 gathered African mining experts to discuss energy and renewable implementation challenges specific to the continent.

GRID CONUNDRUM

For many miners in Africa, the biggest energy challenge is reliability: remote mines have to truck diesel or HFO over thousands of kilometres, sometimes across borders, and even if they are lucky enough to have a grid nearby, power quality is not guaranteed. “Where we have grid connections, the quality of supply is not the best, especially in economies that are growing fast, where infrastructure isn’t coping. It makes it difficult to predict the cost of electricity,” said Tsakani Mthombeni, Executive, Sustainable Development at Impala Platinum.

Additionally, many African grids are based on diesel, HFO or coal power plants. As mining investors push for more ESG implementation, operators are being forced to look beyond reliability and consider the carbon footprint of their power supply. Considering this, adding renewable self-generation on site should be a no-brainer in Africa. “Solar is the cheapest source of energy in the whole world, and in Africa it is even cheaper. Of course life of mine is always a consideration but against HFO in remote locations, payback periods are as small as five years,” pointed out Martin Schlecht, Chief Operating Officer at Suntrace.

And yet, hybrid power plants remain few and far between on the continent. According to Danny Callow, Chief Executive Officer at African Gold Group, this has to do with a lack of awareness of just how far the technology has come in recent years. “One of the really big misnomers about renewable energy is that people still think this is blue sky technology. We need to get the message out there that it’s available and it works,” he said, noting that his company’s decision to build a hybrid plant at the Kobada Gold Mine in Mali will reduce its power cost by 3540%.

REGULATORY CHALLENGES

But there is another issue preventing the widespread adoption of renewables in Africa: while Mali makes it easy for miners to add their own solar generation due to its lack of power infrastructure, other countries see renewable IPPs as unwelcome competition. In Ghana, for instance, there is an overcapacity of generation, and the grid is owned by the government. “For any addition of generation, you really have to justify it properly. It’s not as easy as in Mali, where the government wants you to do that. In Ghana, where generation and transmission have been there for a long time, it is more difficult to extricate yourself from that,” said Samuel DeSouza, Director for Energy and Power Services at Newmont Africa. South Africa is another such example, where renewable IPPs struggle to get authorized to supply to the national grid. “Policies and regulations have lagged behind the development of these technologies. Governments need to create mechanisms to allow the private sector to procure their own power and to bring power from one region to another. This conversation is not about coal vs solar; we are just looking for a way to balance this transition in a way that doesn’t destroy the system,” added Mthombeni.

SPONSORS’ CORNER

ABO Wind presented on the benefits of combining solar and wind to bring renewable penetration upwards of 60%, with the optimal mix between PV and wind varying widely between regions.