It was astonishing to hear Harmony Gold express fears of being carbon taxed up to R80-million by 2023 and R250-million by 2030. The owners of deep level mines are going to have to move fast to produce their own clean power and get rid of diesel underground.
The irony is that Harmony has been asking for permission to produce solar power in the Free State since 2017 but has yet to have projects approved by Nersa. How unfair of government to slow things down to a snail’s pace on the renewable permission side and then hit energy-intensive users with carbon tax on the other.
The lifting of the cap by President Ramaphosa has at least opened the way for own and embedded clean energy generation up to 100 MW. But it is essential that wheeling arrangements are now accelerated to make major generation projects economic and flexible.