- Sasol and Air Liquide have signed two Power Purchase Agreements (PPA) with TotalEnergies and its partner Mulilo, for the long-term supply of a total capacity of 260 MW of renewable power to Sasol’s Secunda site, in South Africa, where Air Liquide operates the biggest oxygen production site in the world.
This is the second set of PPAs signed by Sasol and Air Liquide, after the PPAs announced in January with Enel for 220MW. Together, these PPAs represent a total of 480 MW of the joint commitment by Sasol and Air Liquide to pursue the procurement of renewable energy. This will significantly contribute to the decarbonization of the Secunda site.
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Within the framework of these agreements with Sasol and Air Liquide, TotalEnergies and Mulilo will create one local majority owned wind project with a capacity of 140 MW and one local majority owned solar project with a capacity of 120 MW. These projects are scheduled to be operational in 2025. This agreement is subject to regulatory and financial approvals.
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“Sasol and Air Liquide have made another giant leap towards our goal of procuring of renewable energy to decarbonise our respective operations at Secunda. This also puts Sasol well on its way to achieving its ambition to procure 1200 MW of renewable energy capacity by 2030. The five PPAs that we have signed this year demonstrates the real progress Sasol is making towards its decarbonisation and ultimately, the development of a green economy,” says Priscillah Mabelane, Executive Vice President of Sasol’s Energy Business.
“Sasol’s Renewable Energy Programme, representing one of the largest renewable energy procurement programmes from the private sector in South Africa, is aligned to the government’s REIPPP programme and plays a key role in creating alternative sources of energy to address South Africa’s current energy capacity constraints,” Mabelane added.
In April 2021, Air Liquide and Sasol launched a joint initiative to procure a total of 900 MW of renewable energy for their operations in Secunda, with an allocation of 500 MW to Sasol and 400 MW to Air Liquide. The two companies are negotiating additional PPAs to complete the balance of the renewable energy requested.
Air Liquide acquired Sasol’s 16 oxygen production units in Secunda and has been operating them since June 2021, in the framework of a long-term supply contract with its long-term partner. Including another Air Separation Unit (ASU) it already operated for Sasol, Air Liquide thus now operates a total of 17 ASUs in Secunda, with a total capacity of 47,000 tonnes/day of oxygen.
Author: Bryan Groenendaal
Source: Sasol
