Global gases, technologies and services for industry and health provider Air Liquide and chemicals company Sasol announced the signing of long-term contracts to supply an additional 260 MW of renewable energy to the Secunda site.
Air Liquide and Sasol 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 Air Liquide and Sasol, after the PPAs announced in January with Enel Green Power for a capacity of 220 MW.
Together, these PPAs represent a total of 480 MW of the joint commitment by Air Liquide and Sasol to pursue the procurement of a total capacity of 900 MW of renewable energy.
These are expected to contribute significantly to the decarbonisation of the Secunda site.
Ronnie Chalmers, Vice President and Executive Committee Member of the Air Liquide Group, in charge of Africa Middle East & India, said that these renewable energy capacities significantly contributed to the decarbonisation of their operations in Secunda, the biggest oxygen production site in the world.
“They will also actively support the development of renewable energies in South Africa, for the benefit of the South African electrical power system and ultimately of the South African society. In line with Air Liquide’s ADVANCE strategic plan, which includes reducing its absolute CO2 emissions by 33% by 2035, these PPAs also demonstrate the Group’s capacity to collaborate with its customers to provide solutions which contribute to the decarbonisation of its assets as well as of its clients,” Chalmers said.
Within the framework of the agreements with Air Liquide and Sasol, 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 were scheduled to be operational in 2025. This agreement was subject to regulatory and financial approvals.
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 were 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 now operates a total of 17 ASUs in Secunda, with a total capacity of 47 000 tonnes/day of oxygen.
Air Liquide said it planned to reduce by 30% to 40% the CO2 emissions (Scope 2) arising from its operations on the Secunda site through a multi-year investment and modernisation plan, and a steep increase of the site’s procurement in renewable energies.
Meanwhile, the South Africans’ confidence that a climate crisis would be averted in their lifetime has declined from 58.9% in 2021 to 56.6% last year, according to the second annual Epson Climate Reality Barometer released this week.
The survey measured the opinions and experiences of South Africans as part of a global study by Epson into the causes and possible mitigations to climate change around the world.
Timothy Thomas, country manager, Epson South Africa said the 2021 survey explored the various contributing factors to climate change and humanity’s ability to deal with it effectively, from scientific and government interventions to a slow uptake of renewable energy.
“This year’s survey focused on the actions that individuals have taken, or intend to take, to help tackle climate change, from less international business and leisure travel, to switching to an electric vehicle, walking or cycling more, switching to renewable energy and using more sustainable brands,” Thomas said.
Globally, climate change was on average ranked third as a priority issue that governments, companies and individuals should be focussed on. However, in South Africa, it was ranked fourth at 9.4% behind fixing the economy at 40%, tackling poverty at 19.9% and managing inflation at 14%.
Epson said the findings also suggested that age was a factor, with the oldest age range (55+) most concerned about climate change(over 15%) and those in the 45 to 54 and 16 to 24 age range at under 7% each the least concerned.
This was despite the impact of climate change witnessed in recent years, including intense rains affecting the eastern coast of South Africa, resulting in increased devastating flooding and landslides across KwaZulu-Natal and widespread ongoing droughts across the Eastern and Western Cape.
This, the survey notes, suggested a ‘reality deficit’ in people potentially misunderstanding the full future impacts of climate change.
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