Namane power station
| This article is part of the CoalSwarm coverage of South Africa | |
| Sub-articles: | |
| Related articles: | |
Namane power station is a proposed 660-megawatt (MW) coal-fired station in Waterberg District, South Africa. There have been no updates in two years and the project is presumed to be shelved.
Contents
Location
The map below shows Waterberg coal field, the approximate location where the plant would be located, at farm Duikerpan 249LQ in the Waterberg District of the Limpopo Province.
Background
Namane Generation is proposing the construction of a 660 MW Independent Power Producer (IPP) coal plant at farm Duikerpan 249LQ in the Waterberg District, 44.9 km west-north-west of Lephalale. As of 2015 the company was beginning the EIA and pursuing permits for the project. The project would use low-grade coal sourced from the lower benches (bench 5 to bench 10) of the proposed Temo coal mine, which would lie adjacent to the plant in the Waterberg coal field. Temo coal mine is proposed by Temo Coal; both Temo Coal and Namane Generation are owned by the Namane Group. Construction would require approximately five years.[1]
On February 28, 2017, the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) granted an integrated environmental authorisation to the project. The authorisation was appealed in April 2017 by Earthlife Africa Johannesburg and groundWork on various grounds, especially inadequate study and consideration of the impacts of the project to water supplies and quality in a water-restricted arid region. The appeal notes that company's Updated EIR is non-committal regarding the type of cooling that will be used by the plant ("it is likely that dry cooling will be the preferred method of cooling for this Project") and that the project will produce severe impacts on an area already heavily affected by Eskom's Matimba power station and Medupi power station, both in terms of its water usage, in terms of the water emissions that it would produce, and in terms of the sensitive wetlands that it would degrade or destroy. Of particular concern is the Limpopo River, located only 10 km from the Project and vulnerable to runoff via tributaries. The appeal also notes heritage impacts, due to the location in a palaeontological sensitive zone; air quality impacts; climate change impacts; and the lack of an established need for power.[2]
In addition to an environmental permit, the project will be required to obtain a water use licence (WUL) for coal combustion waste and an atmospheric emission licence (AEL). As of April 2017, neither process had been undertaken.[2]
South Africa's 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 under-construction coal plants, namely Khanyisa power station and Thabametsi power station. No other coal plants are listed.[3]
As of December 2019 there have been no further developments on the project, and it appears to be shelved.
Project Details
- Sponsor: Namane Generation
- Parent company: Namane Group
- Location: Waterberg District, Limpopo Province, South Africa
- Coordinates: -23.666667, 27.516667 (approximate)
- Status: Shelved
- Capacity: 660 MW
- Type: Circulating Fluidized Bed (CFB)
- Projected in service:
- Coal Type: Waste coal
- Coal Source: Waterberg coal field
- Source of financing:
Articles and Resources
Sources
- ↑ "Namane Generation Independent Power Plant, near Lephalale, Limpopo: Draft Scoping Report Project Number: NAM3428," Namane Generation (Pty) Ltd, November 2015
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Appeal pursuant to Section 43(2) of the National Environmental Management Act, 1998 against environmental authorisation granted to Namane Generation (Pty) Ltd on 28 February 2017," submittal to Department of Environmental Affairs by Centre for Environmental Rights on behalf of Earthlife Africa Johannesburg and groundWork, appellants, 4 April 2017
- ↑ "Life After Coal, Greenpeace Africa slam inclusion of new coal in electricity plan," CER, 28 August 2018
