In the rolling hills of Mpumalanga, hundreds of builders, welders and engineers are putting the final touches to a gigantic new power station that’s set to burn as much as 15 million tons of coal a year until it is eventually shuttered in 2073.
The 4 800-megawatt, dry-cooled Kusile plant and the almost identical Medupi facility, which was completed last year, will be key to meeting demand for energy in a country that’s been plagued by rolling blackouts since 2008. Environmentalists, however, caution that their continued operation will be a major impediment to South Africa meeting its commitment to eliminating greenhouse gas emissions on a net basis by 2050.
Kusile and Medupi, owned by state power utility Eskom, have been plagued by labour unrest, mismanagement and equipment defects from the outset, resulting in a succession of delays that have exacerbated electricity shortages. “Most of the work is done,” and Kusile’s limited output is already benefiting the country, Zandi Shange, Eskom’s general manager for projects, said on a tour of the plant near the town of Delmas, about 107km east of Johannesburg, as beeping trucks offloaded coal behind her.
It will also produce vast quantities of ash, mounds of which were seen piled up next to the plant. Eskom said its license only requires it to report on particle emissions, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide and it doesn’t have other accurate figures.
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