South Africa’s IPP market heats up with Botswanan coal

In a throwback to the earliest roots of electric capitalism in southern Africa, private mining houses sitting on giant coal resources are desperate to provide power to the region’s economic powerhouse. Australia’s African Energy Resources (AFR), which holds rights to 3.8bn tonnes of coal at Sese and Mmamantswe, and India’s Jindal, whose licences on the Mmamabula coal field have estimated reserves of 2.4bn tonnes, have both confirmed registration in South Africa’s baseload IPP programme. AFR said on 29 July that it had successfully submitted a request for registration and information with South Africa’s Department of Energy for a 300MW coal power plant at its Sese coal project.