SOUTH AFRICA I MINING
Can solar meet the energy demands of
South Africa’s mining industry?
High energy costs are plaguing South Africa’s mining industry. The price of electricity in the country is one of the highest in the world and blackouts have started affecting supply. There are signs that, with most of South Africa enjoying over 2,500 hours of sunshine each year, its mining firms are slowly looking to PV solar as a potential alternative.
CRONIMET, are a German mining company that first entered South Africa in 2011 by establishing the Thaba Mine in North Western Bushveld. The 1MW facility is integrated into the firm’s extant diesel-based power system.
“The engineering, installation and the ensuing one and a half years of operations have been a great success,” says Rollie Armstrong, Managing Director at CRONIMET Mining Power Solutions, an organisation which develops and deploys hybrid energy solutions in the mining industry and is associated with the CRONIMET mining company.
“We now are working with a number of third party African based mining companies to apply our business model to their on- site captive power solution, just as CRONIMET has. We have operated the PV Diesel hybrid system for over a year and a half, and we are constantly learning and improving upon our execution activities at the many PV - diesel interfaces,” Armstrong adds.
South Africa’s third largest gold mining firm, Harmony Gold Mining Company Limited (Harmony), has also started working PV into its energy sources. Harmony is working with the state
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