- Eskom plans to shut down three power plants by 2025.
- The company will shut down the Komati power plant by October.
- Eskom needs $10bn to phase out coal by 2050 completely.
South Africa state-owned power utility Eskom has announced that it plans to close several coal-fired power stations in the coming months and years. Eskom has set its sights on reducing its coal generation capacity to 8GW from 12GW this decade. Coal currently represents about 30 per cent of its 42GW total installed capacity.
Eskom, one of the continent’s largest polluters, is looking to participate in global decarbonisation efforts and plans to shut down several ageing power stations. The company plans first to shut down the Komati power station. The plant, constructed in the 1970s, is expected to be shut down completely by October 2021.
Eskom intends to replace the coal plant with a 244MWh solar plus battery storage system. In addition, Eskom plans to shut down three other plants power by 2025 permanently; Grootvlei (1,200MWe), Hendrina (2,000MWe) and Camden (1,561MWe), all in Mpumalanga. Eskom anticipates investing $10 billion in clean energy, which will help it to phase out coal by 2050 completely.