S African miner Sibanye-Stillwater inks PPA for 89-MW wind farm

A South African consortium has achieved financial close and signed a power off-take deal with mining and metals processing group Sibanye-Stillwater Ltd (JSE:SSW) for an 89-MW wind project in the Northern Cape province.

The Castle Wind Farm project will supply Sibanye-Stillwater’s South African mining operations via a wheeling agreement with utility Eskom, the miner said on Monday. The 15-year power purchase agreement (PPA) is the company’s first one tied to a utility-scale renewable energy project.

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To be installed near the town of De Aar, the wind farm will be the largest privately-owned wind park in South Africa to date. The project was put forward by a consortium comprising African Infrastructure Investment Managers (AIIM), which is a division of Old Mutual Alternative Investments (OMAI), African Clean Energy Developments (ACED) and Reatile Renewables.

Rand Merchant Bank (RMB), a division of South African lender FirstRand Bank Ltd, arranged the financing deal.

Construction works on the project are expected to begin in June, with commissioning targeted in early 2025. The wind farm’s generation will back Sibanye-Stillwater’s goal to achieve carbon neutrality by 2040.