French multinational industrial gas supplier Air Liquide and South Africa-based chemicals producer Sasol have signed new PPAs with Enel Green Power RSA for the long-term provision of renewable power. The latest PPAs will see an additional 110 MW of renewable power supplied to Sasol’s Secunda site, located around 130 km east of Johannesburg.

The agreement marks the fourth set of PPAs signed by Air Liquide and Sasol recently, following a string of announcements in 2023. The PPAs will supply a total renewable power capacity of around 690 MW, equivalent to a reduction in Air Liquide’s CO2 emissions of approximately 1.2 million tons.

Nicolas Poirot, CEO for Africa, the Middle-East and India at Air Liquide, said that the agreements are “yet another sign of our strong joint commitment to decarbonize the production of oxygen in Secunda.”

Air Liquide acquired Sasol’s 16 oxygen production units in Secunda in 2021. The French company said the latest PPAs contribute to its targeted reduction of CO2 emissions associated with oxygen production. It aims to lower such emissions to 40%, a reduction of 30%, by 2031.

As part of the latest agreement, Enel Green Power will set up a local company to build a wind farm in Eastern Cape province. The production facility is scheduled to be operational by 2026.

“These long-term contracts will actively support the development of renewable energy in South Africa, for the benefit of the country’s electrical system and ultimately of the South African society in the context of a just transition,” said Poirot.

In 2021, Air Liquide and Sasol announced plans to procure 900 MW of renewables at the Secunda site, in an effort to decarbonize its operations.

In November 2023, South Africa’s Mainstream Renewable Power said that it had launched construction of a 97.5 MW solar plant in the country’s Free State province. Once operational, it will power Sasol and Air Liquide's operations in Secunda, as the two companies have signed a 20-year PPA.