Unnamed South Africa coal projects

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Unnamed South Africa coal projects is an announced power station in Unknown, South Africa. It is also known as South Africa IRP 2010 Update New Coal.

Location

Table 1: Project-level location details

Plant name	Location	Coordinates (WGS 84)
Unnamed South Africa coal projects	Unknown, South Africa	-29.02, 24.42 (approximate)

The map below shows the approximate location of the power station.

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Project Details

Table 2: Unit-level details

Unit name	Status	Fuel(s)	Capacity (MW)	Technology	Start year
IRP Capacity	announced	coal: unknown	1500	unknown	2027 (planned)

Table 3: Unit-level ownership and operator details

Unit name	Owner	Parent
IRP Capacity	to be determined [100%]	to be determined [100.0%]

Background

In 2011 the South Africa Department of Energy (DOE) released an Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) for the 2010-2030 time period.

The plan described a "Revised Balance Scenario" (RBS) for coal that included 4332 MW at Medupi power station, 4338 MW at Kusile power station, and 6250 MW of unnamed "new build options" during the 2010-2030 period.

The 6250 MW of new, unnamed capacity was planned to be implemented as follows:

• 2014: 500 MW
• 2015: 500 MW
• 2019-2025: 250 MW each year
• 2026: 1000 MW
• 2027: 250 MW
• 2028: 1000 MW
• 2029: 250 MW
• 2030: 1000 MW

The 500 MW of new coal capacity in 2014 and again in 2015 would be fluidized bed combustion (FBC) plants built, owned, and operated by independent power providers (IPPs). The 250 MW of new capacity in 2019 and 2020 were also conceived as FBC plants, but the plan did not specify who would build these plants.

The 2013 draft update of the plan envisioned 2,450 MW of new coal power by 2030, due to a downgrading of national energy demand and increase in proposed natural gas use. It stated that 1,000 - 1,500 MW of fluidized bed combustion capacity from discarded coal would be a preferable implementation of the proposed Coal-3 power station. The draft update was issued for public comment and anticipated to be submitted to the cabinet by March 2014, but never was. Therefore IRP 2010 remains the official document and the draft update has no status.

In December 2014 the government announced that it would launch a private sector-led, independent power producer (IPP) coal plant program by January 2015, which would add 2,500 megawatts of generation capacity to the grid.

2018 IRP

South Africa's 2018 draft Integrated Resource Plan for Electricity (IRP), released in August 2018, contains plans for an additional 1000 MW of new coal-fired power on top of the Medupi and Kusile coal plants, which are under construction. The new plants are the Khanyisa power station and Thabametsi power station, chosen as part of the IPP coal baseload program. All other plans appear to be cancelled.

2019 IRP & 2020 Determination

The government's 2019 Integrated Resource Plan (IRP2019), released in October 2019, included plans for 1,500 MW of coal-based electricity: 750 MW in 2023 and another 750 MW in 2027. However, that 1,500 MW appeared to be in addition to or instead of the 900 MW from the planned Khanyisa power station and Thabametsi power station, which were at risk or "not materialising due to financing and legal challenges".

A November 2021 study released by the University of Cape Town's Energy Systems Research Group describes that this coal plan not only costs US $1.5 billion more than a least-cost alternative, but also will yield 25,000 job losses and stand in direct opposition to the country's climate commitments. Another study from May 2022 reports that between January 2019 and November 2021, 10 African commercial banks provided US $2.807 billion in loans to the coal industry, with five South African banks accounting for 97% of total lending. Though shifts in the IRP have occurred, this author says that there is "no end to coal financing in sight" for the country.

Youth-led litigation filed in 2021

In November 2021, the Centre for Environmental Rights (CER), a South African environmental law organization, filed a landmark constitutional lawsuit in the North Gauteng High Court on behalf of three civil society organizations against the South African government. The suit demands that the government abandon its plans to build new coal-fired power generation. "The Cancel Coal case is, at its heart, a lawsuit tackling climate change that seeks to compel the South African government to do its part to address the climate crisis by reducing coal-related emissions. South Africa (SA) is the world’s seventh largest consumer of coal, using the fuel to account for about 80% of its electricity production. Largely because of its coal consumption, South Africa is ranked 13th in the world in CO2 emissions. In addition, South Africa’s coal economy is a major environmental justice issue because the burdens of mining and burning coal in South Africa are disproportionately borne by the poor and exacerbated by the unjust legacies left behind by Apartheid."

As CER wrote, "The case was launched after government failed to respond to a letter of demand sent to Minister Mantashe on 17 September 2021 by CER on behalf of ACA groundWork and VEM, which demanded that government abandon its plans to build new coal-fired power as outlined in the Minister’s September 2020 determination for 1500 MW of new coal and the 2019 IRP. The organisational applicants have gone out of their way to afford the Minister ample opportunity to engage on the unlawful inclusion of the 1500 MW new coal allocation. Due to the Minister’s unresponsiveness, they have been left with no alternative but to institute these court proceedings in the public interest and in order to vindicate constitutional rights."

In November 2022, after the Minister refused to make certain documents available – including the modelling and cost assumptions that informed the plans for 1,500 MW of new coal, as well as the details of the coal power technologies considered – the applicants approached the court. In December 2022, the court ordered the Minister to release the documents by February 28, 2023.

In September 2023, noting the Mineral Resources and Energy Minister's failure to release the court ordered documents, the applicants represented by CER filed a supplementary founding affidavit that added the Minister of Electricity as a respondent to the case, given his "newly acquired powers in determining new generation capacity." In April 2024, the High Court ordered the Minister of Electricity to join the ongoing case as a fifth respondent.

The Cancel Coal case was heard in the Pretoria High Court on October 9–10, 2024. The plaintiffs reportedly argued that the government failed to ensure adequate consultation with youth and other groups that are most vulnerable to the effects of coal plant pollution and climate change. The state respondents argued the court could not intervene in what was a policy decision and insisted they did not breach the applicants’ constitutional rights as no action had occurred to procure new coal capacity. The defendants also emphasized that the plan required ‘high-efficiency, low-emission’ (HELE) coal capacity. The Centre for Environmental Rights, representing the applicants, dismissed the notion of ‘clean coal’ as a myth as HELE coal plants still involve pollution in all stages of the supply chain, including greenhouse gas emissions and coal ash. The court reserved its decision following the arguments.

In December 2024, the High Court of South Africa handed down their judgement on the case, declaring the government’s 2019 plan to procure 1,500 MW of coal power “unlawful and invalid.” The court found that the government’s proposal had “insufficient consultation with, and consideration of, the harms and limitation of rights of present and future generations that could follow from building new coal electricity generation.”

2023 draft IRP & 2024 reworking

According to reporting from August and September 2023, the Minister of Electricity had announced that the government planned to release an updated Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) for 2030 by the end of September 2023. The Minister of Minerals and Energy later said that the updated IRP would now be submitted to the Cabinet by the end of October 2023.

In December 2023, Cabinet approved an updated draft IRP, which was released for public comment the following month.

Possible scenarios in the 2023 draft IRP included delayed shutdowns of coal plants and up to 6,000 MW of alleged "clean coal" technologies. A representative from Eskom reportedly said that a cost analysis with details on delayed coal plant closures was "still being finalised." Energy, business, and community groups had criticized the draft IRP for its lack of detail and ambition for renewables. The public comment period was scheduled to close on February 23, 2024.

According to reporting from February 2024, South Africa's Presidential Climate Commission (PCC), a government advisory body, warned that the draft 2023 IRP did not adequately address the country's energy crisis. The PCC reportedly added that the IRP's "lack of attention to air quality and climate change puts it in conflict with the law and international agreements."

In March 2024, Meridian Economics, a South African economic consultancy, argued in its submitted comments that the draft IRP was seriously deficient in its assessment of alternative power development pathways and ignored the impacts of air pollution. Meridian said the IRP assumed Eskom's current retirement schedule as fixed and did not assess a net-zero pathway in any scenario. Meridian also argued that the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy set "seemingly arbitrary" limits on annual solar capacity additions. The South African Independent Power Producer Association (SAIPPA) similarly criticized the draft 2023 IRP for its capacity constraints on solar and wind power, and the plan's projection that loadshedding would continue until at least 2027. Public comments on the draft IRP closed on March 23, 2024.

In April 2024, the executive director of South Africa's Presidential Climate Commission said the draft IRP required "substantial revisions to meet the country's economic, environmental and social objectives." The Department of Mineral Resources and Energy reportedly expected to submit the final IRP for Cabinet approval by the end of May 2024.

As of November 2024, the 2023 draft IRP was still being revised based on another round of feedback. The reworked draft, which would become IRP 2024, was expected to be submitted for Cabinet approval in the first quarter of 2025.

Just Energy Transition Investment Plan

The Political Declaration on the Just Energy Transition in South Africa issued at COP26 in November 2021 and the Joint Statement on South Africa's Just Energy Transition Investment Plan issued at COP27 in November 2022 described South Africa’s "intention to decommission and repurpose or repower coal-fired power stations" and "invest in new low-emission generation capacity such as renewables." They highlighted the efforts underway "to lead a just transition that protects vulnerable workers and communities, especially coal miners, women and youth, affected by the move away from coal."

As groups have pointed out, to meet climate goals, urgent action must start now, including "dramatically scaling up and accelerating our renewable energy build, creating binding, effective and enforceable emissions reduction mechanisms, disclosing detailed and publicly accessible GHG emissions reduction management tools, cancelling all new coal projects, [and] avoiding massive new gas infrastructure projects that modelling has shown we do not need in the future."

In November 2023, the South African government approved the US$8.8 billion Just Energy Transition Investment Plan (JET IP). The published JET implementation plan indicated that JET funding would target "[t]he front-loading of repurposing and repowering investments by the private sector, and alternative livelihoods for workers, communities, and SMMEs [small, medium and micro enterprises] at the retiring coal power plants, with decommissioning schedules that do not disrupt electricity supply."

Articles and Resources

Additional data

To access additional data, including an interactive map of coal-fired power stations, a downloadable dataset, and summary data, please visit the Global Coal Plant Tracker on the Global Energy Monitor website.