$1.7B KiPower coal project given environmental go-ahead

2015-12-29

 South Africa, Mpumalanga: South African Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) has granted an integrated environmental authorisation (IEA) for the construction of the 600 MW KiPower coal-fired independent power plant near Delmas, a town situated east of Johannesburg in Mpumalanga.

The project would include the development of four 150 MW circulating fluidised bed units, each boasting a 400 kV three-phase transformer, reports  Mining Weekly.

The $1.7-billion facility, which would be built within 5 km of the existing Delmas coal mine from which it would source coal, would feed into the national grid. It could potentially be expanded to produce up to 2,000 MW in the long term.

KiPower expected construction on the power plant to begin this year, with the first of the plant’s three units to be operational by 2018.