JSE-listed coal and energy group Exxaro Resources and State-owned electricity producer Eskom have announced they will collaborate on research initiatives and projects to reduce carbon emissions and cut air pollution.

The two entities, which both have net-zero by 2050 targets, formalised their collaboration through a memorandum of understanding (MoU), signed on April 14.

The agreement covers both direct and indirect emissions, with Exxaro particularly keen to find solutions for its Scope 3 emissions, especially those generated by Eskom when it burns Exxaro coal to produce electricity.

No specific interventions were announced at the ceremony, but Exxaro CEO Ben Magara highlighted the need for solutions to improve coal efficiency, control carbon emissions, potentially through carbon capture, storage and utilisation, and to reduce air pollutants such as dust and sulphur dioxide.

The companies said the initial focus of the collaboration would guide the necessary investments and mobilise the stakeholders needed to find technology-based solutions to the challenges associated with the transition to a low-carbon economy.

Magara described the collaboration with Eskom as a way to “accelerate practical and scalable solutions” that not only decarbonised and reduced air pollution, but also delivered socioeconomic benefits to communities in line with the Just Energy Transition.

In parallel, Exxaro would push ahead with initiatives to reduce direct emissions, with its renewable-energy subsidiary, Cennergi, having already built 229 MW of renewables capacity, and with the 68 MW Lephalale solar PV project to be commissioned later this year to supply renewable energy to its Grootegeluk mine in Limpopo.

It was also partnering with G7 Renewable Energies on a 140 MW wind project, which will supply wheeled electricity to Northam Platinum

Eskom CEO Dan Marokane said the State-owned utility was moving to identify the latest developments and strategies to reduce carbon emissions and other air pollutants, highlighting a recent visit to China by senior officials to study interventions being made by utilities in that country.

He argued that Eskom did not have a coal problem, but an emissions problem and that Eskom was investigating various ways to reduce its emissions and ensure that it’s coal-fired power stations operated within the “prescripts” of environmental legislation.

Eskom was recently granted exemptions from minimum emission standards (MES) for eight power stations that would otherwise have been forced to close on April 1, including Duvha, Kendal, Lethabo, Majuba, Matimba, Matla, Medupi, and Tutuka.

The exemptions were granted following an application made in terms of Section 59 of the National Environmental Management: Air Quality Act, and followed the granting last year of permission allowing Eskom to continue to operate the aged Hendrina, Grootvlei, Arnot, Camden and Kriel at existing MES plant limits until their decommissioning on March 31, 2030.

The latest exemptions were granted by Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment Minister Dr Dion George alongside several conditions, and Marokane said Eskom was in the process of preparing a detailed response.

He would not be drawn on whether that response would include an indication that Eskom would seek to extend the lives of some of its stations beyond their scheduled decommissioning dates.

However, he made an assertive case for the group’s strategy of establishing a new ‘Renewable Energy Business’ to accelerate the deployment of renewable-energy solutions, primarily on land surrounding its coal-fired power stations.

Eskom has issued a tender through which it is seeking private partners to support its renewables business, which he said had a near-term pipeline of projects involving 2 GW of solar and wind capacity.

“We will do this with others on our lands, with our people who are skilled and will also leverage the balance sheet of others to de-risk ourselves going forward.

“So we've entered an era of partnership, and it’s a space that Eskom has to play in,” he said, while insisting that Eskom had no plan to crowd out private independent power producers.