Envusa Energy, the joint venture between Anglo American and EDF Power Solutions, has officially commenced commercial operations at its Mooi Plaats Solar PV Project in South Africa’s Northern Cape. The 240MW facility is the first project in a broader 520MW renewable energy cluster to reach this milestone, and it signals a decisive step in one of the most ambitious private-sector decarbonisation programmes on the African continent.
The plant delivers renewable electricity into the national grid, supplying Valterra Platinum, De Beers, and Kumba Iron Ore under long-term offtake agreements that span 20 years. It is also the first operational demonstration of a portfolio wheeling model that Envusa developed in collaboration with Eskom — a system that aggregates energy from geographically dispersed generating assets and allocates it to meet the specific demand profiles of multiple mining and processing operations simultaneously.
Nolitha Fakude, chair of Envusa Energy’s board and chair of Anglo American in South Africa, described the project as far more than an energy infrastructure milestone. She stated that Mooi Plaats is the first of three projects to reach commercial operations, with two additional 140MW projects expected to follow later this year. She added that the project delivers low-carbon power while also strengthening national energy security and creating new socio-economic opportunities.
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Inside the Koruson 2 Cluster: Scale, Technology, and Design
Mooi Plaats is the centrepiece of the Koruson 2 cluster, a collection of three renewable energy projects located on the border of the Northern and Eastern Cape provinces. The cluster includes the Umsobomvu Wind Project (140MW), the Hartebeesthoek Wind Project (140MW), and the Mooi Plaats Solar PV Project (240MW), giving it a combined generation capacity of 520MW.
The solar facility itself is an engineering achievement of considerable scale. According to Green Building Africa, the plant has a nameplate capacity of 240MW and a DC capacity of 283.1MW. It is equipped with 416,324 bifacial photovoltaic modules mounted on a single-axis tracker system, supported by 943 string inverters. The facility is expected to generate approximately 360 million kilowatt-hours of renewable electricity annually — a substantial output that will be directed to Anglo American’s South African operations under the two-decade offtake agreements.
All three Koruson 2 projects connect to the new Koruson 400kV Main Transmission Substation, which was built as part of EDF Power Solutions’ earlier Koruson 1 project cluster. The total investment across EDF’s South African construction projects, including Koruson 2, amounts to approximately 34 billion ZAR (roughly 1.65 billion EUR). This level of capital deployment positions Envusa and EDF among the most active renewable energy developers operating in the country.
Tristan de Drouas, CEO of EDF Power Solutions in South Africa, stated that the commercial operation of Mooi Plaats demonstrates the growing momentum of the Anglo American partnership. He emphasised that through Envusa Energy, the companies are deploying world-class renewable projects and aggregation capability that contributes directly to South Africa’s broader energy transition.
How Valterra Platinum Benefits: Emissions, Costs, and Energy Security
The single largest beneficiary of the Koruson 2 programme is Valterra Platinum, the company formerly known as Anglo American Platinum, which was demerged from Anglo American in 2025. Approximately 80 percent of the electricity generated through the Koruson 2 programme is allocated to Valterra Platinum’s operations.
The Mooi Plaats project alone is expected to supply about 15 percent of Valterra Platinum’s total electricity demand, mitigating an estimated 500,000 tonnes of carbon emissions annually. Grid electricity currently accounts for approximately 87 percent of the company’s total greenhouse gas emissions, making the shift to renewable supply critical to meeting its climate targets.
Valterra Platinum CEO Craig Miller described the project as a significant energy transition milestone. He stated that once all Koruson 2 projects come online, they will add approximately 480MW of renewable energy to the company’s operations, meeting about a third of its total electricity needs. This strengthens its pathway to a 30 percent absolute reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, measured against a 2016 baseline.
The financial benefits are equally meaningful. Based on NERSA-approved tariff structures, forecast savings from the Koruson 2 programme are estimated at about 10 percent below current tariffs in 2026. In a country where electricity tariffs have risen by approximately 180 percent over the past decade, and where NERSA has confirmed further increases of 8.76 percent from April 2026, the ability to lock in lower, predictable energy costs through long-term renewable agreements represents a significant competitive advantage.
De Beers and Kumba Iron Ore are also beneficiaries of the Koruson 2 programme. Anglo American’s 2025 full-year results noted that 11MW of the Koruson 2 output will be wheeled to Kumba’s Kolomela mine, reducing that site’s Scope 2 emissions by approximately 85 percent. De Beers’ Venetia mine is allocated 48MW of supply.
The Portfolio Wheeling Model: A New Commercial Framework
One of the most significant aspects of the Mooi Plaats project is the commercial framework it introduces. Rather than operating as a simple bilateral power purchase agreement between a single generator and a single buyer, Envusa Energy functions as an intermediate trading entity that aggregates power from multiple generation sources and allocates it across multiple off-takers based on their real-time demand profiles.
This portfolio wheeling concept was developed in collaboration with Eskom and represents an evolution in how large industrial users can access renewable energy in South Africa. The National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA) granted Envusa an electricity trading licence that enables it to buy power from generators in the Northern Cape and sell to mining customers across Limpopo, North West, and Northern Cape provinces, with Eskom acting as the distribution network.
This model is part of a broader trend reshaping South Africa’s energy market in 2026. Trader-led wheeling models are expected to become the dominant commercial framework this year, as the market moves beyond one-to-one bilateral agreements toward more aggregated, portfolio-based solutions. Under these models, licensed traders coordinate supply and demand across portfolios, manage volume and balancing risk, and absorb much of the administrative complexity that previously fell on individual buyers.
For the mining sector, which consumes approximately 14 percent of Eskom’s electricity output — rising to 30 percent when smelters and refineries are included — these new commercial structures are transformative. They enable mines to move from passive electricity buyers to active energy managers, reducing their exposure to tariff volatility while advancing decarbonisation targets.
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South Africa’s Mining Sector and the Renewable Energy Imperative
The Mooi Plaats commissioning does not occur in isolation. It is part of a much broader acceleration in renewable energy deployment across South Africa’s mining sector — a shift driven by the convergence of rising electricity costs, grid instability, and intensifying global pressure on emissions.
Several major miners have pursued similar strategies. According to Business Day, Sibanye-Stillwater has secured wind and solar capacity under wheeling agreements with independent power producers. Richards Bay Minerals, a subsidiary of Rio Tinto, has signed multiple renewable power purchase agreements to supply its operations. Exxaro Resources has developed solar capacity feeding its Grootegeluk coal mine under long-term agreements.
Sibanye-Stillwater recently expanded its renewable portfolio further by signing an additional offtake agreement with NOA, a renewable energy developer. That agreement is expected to deliver annual energy costs forecast to average 20 to 30 percent lower than Eskom wholesale tariffs, translating into savings of more than R1 billion per year from 2028. The Minerals Council South Africa has noted that mining companies are shifting from small pilot projects to large-scale solar and wind facilities exceeding 100MW, signing long-term power purchase agreements with independent producers and wheeling power across the grid to multiple sites.
Since 2018, the National Energy Regulator has registered more than 2,300 private electricity generation facilities with a combined capacity of about 18 gigawatts — much of it solar power built by mines, manufacturers, and commercial businesses. This represents a structural transformation of South Africa’s electricity landscape that is unlikely to reverse.
Envusa’s Ambition: From 520MW to 3–5GW by 2030
Mooi Plaats and the Koruson 2 cluster represent only the first phase of Envusa Energy’s ambitions. The joint venture has publicly stated its target to build a 3 to 5GW renewable energy portfolio by 2030, comprising wind, solar, and battery storage projects that will supply industrial users across mining, steel, and cement sectors in southern Africa.
When Anglo American and EDF Renewables first announced the formation of Envusa Energy in October 2022, they launched a mature pipeline of more than 600MW of wind and solar projects as the initial phase. The name “Envusa” itself is drawn from the Nguni word “Vusa,” meaning “to awaken” — a deliberate reference to the broader economic awakening that both companies believe the energy transition can catalyse in southern Africa.
The Nedbank-led financing of the Koruson 2 cluster was a multi-billion-rand deal structured as non-recourse project finance, typical of high-quality renewable energy infrastructure assets. The transaction brought together a consortium of lenders, with Nedbank CIB serving as co-mandated lead arranger, lender, hedge provider, and coordinating bank. The financial close of this first phase was described by EDF’s de Drouas as the initial step toward the company’s broader 3 to 5GW ambition.
At its planned scale, Envusa’s ecosystem would be one of the largest private-sector renewable energy operations in southern Africa, potentially abating approximately 2.2 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year from the Koruson 2 cluster alone, with far greater reductions as subsequent phases come online.
Community Investment and Black Economic Empowerment
Beyond the engineering and financial dimensions, Envusa Energy has structured the Mooi Plaats project to deliver direct benefits to host communities. The venture has invested R20 million into local socio-economic development projects for the Inxuba Yethemba Middleburg community, and the community participates in project ownership through the Winds of Change Community Trust.
The Koruson 2 cluster also incorporates a 20 percent equity investment by Pele Green Energy, an established South African independent power producer. Gqi Raoleka, CEO of Pele Green Energy, described the project as a particularly significant partnership given both companies’ shared commitment to South Africa and to developing communities alongside their respective mining and power assets.
According to Envusa, the Mooi Plaats project created more than 1,300 project-related jobs during its construction phase. The company has also stated its commitment to identifying and implementing further black economic empowerment partnerships at the business level, in line with both Anglo American’s and EDF’s commitments to South Africa’s economic transformation goals.
A Defining Moment for South Africa’s Energy Transition
The commercial operation of Mooi Plaats arrives at a moment when South Africa’s energy sector is undergoing rapid structural change. The removal of licensing thresholds for embedded generation has unlocked a pipeline of more than 80 confirmed private-sector projects with a combined capacity exceeding 6,000MW. Electricity reform is moving from policy development into practical implementation, and the wheeling market is maturing into a sophisticated, trader-led ecosystem.
Yet challenges remain. Grid capacity in resource-rich provinces like the Northern and Eastern Cape has become the most significant constraint on further renewable expansion, with 75 percent of all private renewable applications targeting these areas despite their grid saturation. Regulatory friction persists, as illustrated by a recent High Court ruling in February 2026 that overturned Eskom’s decision to block Sibanye-Stillwater from building its own solar plant — a case that exposed the structural tensions between the state utility’s revenue model and the country’s stated energy transition goals.
Against this backdrop, the Mooi Plaats project stands as tangible proof that large-scale, privately financed renewable energy can be delivered in South Africa — and that the mining sector, long one of the country’s largest sources of carbon emissions, can be fundamentally reshaped through strategic energy procurement. With two additional projects expected to reach commercial operations later this year and a multi-gigawatt pipeline in development, Envusa Energy is positioning itself as a central player in what may become one of the most consequential energy transitions anywhere on the continent.
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