Amatola Green Power (AGP), the only company selling green power in South Africa, announced a deal this week to sell electricity to its first corporate customer, Mercedes-Benz.
Amatola, which buys excess energy that sugar giants produce from bagasse, a waste product produced from sugar cane, will sell the electricity to Mercedes-Benz in terms of an agreement with the City of Tshwane.
Buffalo City Municipality was the first buyer of green electricity in the country, from June last year.
The electricity will be fed into the national electricity grid, to which Eskom has granted Amatola access. This allows for the electricity to be purchased by end consumers.
Amatola sells power to clients who pay a premium of between 30% and 40% for the sugar-generated power compared to usual electricity prices.
South Africa is one of the highest producers of greenhouse gas emissions in the developing world.
Green power is the generation of electricity from renewable energy sources such as biomass, wind and solar power. Len van Wyk, MD of AGP, says generating green electricity is harmless to the environment.
Amatola last October obtained the approval of the National Energy Regulator of South Africa and the department of minerals and energy to buy and sell green electricity in a voluntary market.
”Customers now have a choice to purchase ‘green’ electricity to demonstrate their support for initiatives to restore and keep our environment clean,” says Console Tleane, spokesperson for the City of Tshwane.
Amatola currently sells 12MW of green power each year.
Mercedes-Benz SA buys up to 20% of all the green power Amatola sells, Buffalo City Municipality takes 30% to 35% and the city of Tshwane the rest.
Says Van Wyk: ”Despite various requests from individuals to buy green power, we can’t deal with the retail market at this stage because we don’t have the necessary infrastructure or a permanent licence.
”We will be able to sell to individual consumers within the next two years. We are hoping to qualify for carbon trading within the next six months.”
Amatola’s suppliers are Tongaat Hulett Sugar Limited and Transvaal Sugar Limited, which have their own power-generation sites. The companies sell their surplus electricity to Amatola and are situated at Felixton and Amatikulu in Zululand, KwaZulu-Natal, respectively.
”Sugar bagasse [sugar cane fibre] is a renewable form of energy because it is left over after sugar is manufactured,” says Van Wyk.
Felixton Mill crushes two million tons of cane per annum while Amatikulu Mill crushes 1,7-million tons. Between the two about 1,1-million tons of bagasse waste is generated every year, employing 700 people. Each of the four mills generates up to 25MW per annum, selling off 5% to 10% of the total generated.
The electricity that Amatola supplies is generated from sustainable natural renewable energy sources such as biomass, small scale hydropower and landfill methane gas.
To enable the trade over the national electrical network, Amatola created the voluntary green power trading market, which gives customers a choice in energy source.
Generation stations supplying green power are situated at the origin of the renewable energy source, eliminating the necessity to build power plants on customers’ premises.
These generators are connected to the national electrical grid in the same manner as other existing power stations. The output is monitored by special equipment registering the exact amount of green power produced and converted into renewable energy certificates by an internationally recognised issuing body.
For every R1 000 paid for green power, the buyer removes approximately 2,3 tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
Van Wyk says Amatola has numerous commercial customers waiting to purchase the product. This demand will be met as Tongaat Hulett is in the process of increasing its capacity.