South African national utility Eskom has launched a new unit to focus on large-scale renewable energy projects.
Named Eskom Green, the new unit is being established to spearhead the delivery of 40GW of renewables by 2040, in line with South Africa’s 2025 integrated resources plan (IRP).
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Eskom said that since the publication of the 2019 version of its IRP, only about 50% of the awarded renewable energy projects with grid allocation and power offtake agreements had been built.
“This highlights the need for stronger coordination to maintain energy security while meeting emissions‑reduction targets, and an addressable market that requires decarbonisation solutions at scale and pace,” Eskom said in a statement about the unit’s launch.
Eskom said the new unit was part of its “unbundling strategy”, under which it is seeking to transition from a single, vertically integrated company into separate, specialised entities. It said the new unit would “differ materially” from the parent organisation by offering agile decision-making capabilities, access to diverse sources of capital, partnership-based delivery models and bankable project structures. Eskom Green will eventually be separated from Eskom as a wholly owned subsidiary with an independent board.
“Eskom Green is a utility-scale renewable energy business that rapidly accelerates the options available to South Africa’s industries to decarbonise and transition industrial and productive capacity to maintain export competitiveness. The business is set to increase the supply of renewable energy to enable customers to lower the carbon footprint of their energy consumption,” said Rivoningo Mnisi, group executive for Eskom Renewables.
Initially, Eskom Green will primarily target sectors with high energy consumption, such as mining and manufacturing, providing them with solutions to decarbonise, for example, through direct bilateral power purchase agreements.
The company is expected to have about 6GW of green electricity available up to 2030, as a result of the broad pipeline of renewables and storage initiatives Eskom already has under development.
This includes at least 2GW of renewable energy and pumped storage projects expected to advance from 2026, anchored by developments such as the 75MW Lethabo solar PV project in the Free State.
After this, Eskom Green will advance a further pipeline of up to 32GW of renewable energy and storage projects by 2040, funded through dedicated project special purpose vehicles. Eskom said that in terms of technology, the new unit’s pipeline would be weighted towards solar PV, with support from battery energy storage, pumped storage and wind.
