Anglo American and EDF Renewables have formed Envusa Energy to develop a regional renewable energy ecosystem (RREE) in South Africa, according to a news release.
The roll-out of the RREE will serve as an 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 to replace diesel, supporting the development of South Africa’s Hydrogen Valley.
In March the two companies signed a MOU to explore the ecosystem’s development. Envusa Energy is launching a 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 projected to generate 3-to-5 GW of renewable energy by 2030.
This first phase of Envusa’s renewables projects is expected to be fully funded – including by attracting debt financing that is typical for high quality energy infrastructure projects – and ready for construction to begin in 2023.
Envusa 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.
