Seriti Green, a Seriti Resources subsidiary, is progressing the country’s first majority black-owned wind farm, the Ummbila Emoyeni project in Mpumalanga, which will also mark the province’s pioneer wind energy facility.

This was highlighted by the group during the unveiling of the project to media and key stakeholders on July 17.

The R4.8-billion project is the first since Seriti Resources, one of South Africa’s largest coal miners, announced its acquisition of Windlab and the subsequent launch of Seriti Green last year.

Seriti operates six large-scale, opencast and underground thermal coal mines, predominately supplying State-owned utility Eskom power stations.

The wind farm project forms part of the coal miner’s strategy of diversifying its offering to more than coal, in a sustainable way, for it to play its role in the country’s just energy transition (JET) journey.

Seriti Resources Group CEO and Seriti Green chairperson Mike Teke said the group would continue to develop its existing coal assets and would not be exiting them – given that phasing out of coal energy needed to be a long-term sustainable process – while simultaneously pursuing opportunities in green energy.

The Ummbila Emoyeni project is slated to be fully commissioned by 2027, by which time it will provide electricity to meet the needs of about 75% of Seriti’s own operations, as well as supplying surrounding communities with electricity, through a wheeling arrangement. 

The first phase of the construction of the 155 MW Ummbila Emoyeni wind energy facility is currently under way and will be completed by mid-July 2026.

The 155 MW project marks the first phase of a 900 MW project which Seriti Green aims to build over the next three years at an estimated cost of R25-billion. The 900 MW comprises 750 MW of wind power and 150 MW of solar power.

The overall project will also include 800 MWh of storage capacity.

About R1.5-billion of the R4.8-billion cost for Phase 1 will be spent on the grid infrastructure needed for the project.

About half of this infrastructure will be owned and maintained by Seriti Green, while the other half will form part of Eskom’s national grid.

Seriti Green CEO Peter Venn noted that all of the equity in the project was being provided by Seriti shareholders RMB and Standard Bank.

He also highlighted the synergy between Seriti’s coal business and its renewables business. “It is not about either coal or renewables, rather, it is about coal and renewables,” he emphasised.

Venn averred that this allowed for Seriti Resources, which held the minerals rights over the project’s land, to relinquish it for the project to be built. Moreover, the project was sourcing mine-impacted water from Seriti’s nearby located New Denmark colliery asset, which Venn described as a circular economy stride.

Also, 10% of Seriti Green’s workforce comes from the coal sector.

The project is also sourcing equipment from the local area, exploring options for local manufacturing of components, and features an on-site training simulator.

Venn stressed Seriti Green’s focus on cross-skilling and upskilling people, from the coal sector and surrounding community, given that the wind farm would not be able to absorb the same number of employees as a coal operation.

Therefore, it was aiming to ensure that there was sustainable job creation in Mpumalanga in the long term, for when coal power stations were shut down. With the company set to build about 3 GW of projects in the area for about a decade to come, it was aiming for this to be a catalytic project for job creation in the region, Venn asserted.

The company also highlighted its focus on community and stakeholder engagement, which began in 2021, prior to construction starting on the project.

One of the things that materialised from this was the creation of a portal, in 2022, detailing to small and medium-sized enterprises and job seekers what is required for them to work on the project, so that they can prepare accordingly.

To date, about 6 800 people have registered for jobs on the hub.

Venn also lauded the willingness of local government to adopt the project and its proactiveness in implementing the requisite structures to undertake the project and ensure stakeholder and community involvement.

He told Engineering News that the company had undertaken considerable environment studies prior to construction, which dictated that it only used about 1% of the available land for the project, to ensure that the environment, land and infrastructure was protected.

He also informed that the project boasted about 25% local components, with potential to increase this to between 50% and 60%, provided there was significant investment and the necessary policy certainty to support this.