South Africa's national power utility Eskom has launched a dedicated renewables business unit to accelerate utility-scale clean energy development in the country (Eskom press release, 09/06/2026). The new wholly owned subsidiary, Eskom Green, plans to deploy a 6 GW portfolio of solar, wind, pumped storage, and BESS capacity by 2030, supplying industrial customers under “take-or-pay" agreements.
The portfolio is comprised of 17 high-priority projects that plan to leverage existing infrastructure of Eskom’s existing coal-fired power plants, of which at least 2 GW of renewable energy and pumped storage projects are expected to advance through 2026. Among them, there is the 75 MW Lethabo solar plant that started construction works in May 2026.
The company is expected to work alongside private sector participants to help close the generation capacity gap identified in South Africa’s Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) 2025 that targets 5.6 GW of renewables by 2030, 21 GW by 2035 and 32 GW by 2040. The IRP 2025 estimates that integrating every 10 GW of renewable energy requires 6 GW of dispatchable backup capacity (60%).
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