Air Liquide, Sasol Sign Contracts To Supply Addl. 100 MW Of Renewable Electricity To Secunda Site

(RTTNews) - French industrial gases company Air Liquide Group (AIQUY.PK) and Sasol (SSL) announced Tuesday that it has signed new long-term contracts to supply an additional 100 MW of renewable electricity to the Secunda site in South Africa.

The companies have signed new Power Purchase Agreements or PPA with the wind and solar company Mainstream Renewable Power.

The deal is for the long-term supply of a capacity of 97.5 MW of renewable power to Sasol's Secunda site, where Air Liquide operates the biggest oxygen production site in the world.

Mainstream will create a local company with strong socio-economic development commitments which will build a solar farm located in the Free State province. This renewable energy production facility is scheduled to be operational in 2025.

Air Liquide acquired Sasol's 16 oxygen production units in Secunda and has been operating them since June 2021, in the framework of a long-term supply contract with its partner. Air Liquide operates a total of 17 Air Separation Units or ASUs in Secunda, with a total capacity of 47,000 tonnes/day of oxygen.

Air Liquide and Sasol have already signed two sets of PPAs earlier, with Enel Green Power and TotalEnergies with its partner Mulilo. The three PPAs together represent a total renewable power capacity of around 580 MW.

According to Air Liquide, these contracts will contribute to the targeted reduction by 30 percent to 40 percent of the CO2 emissions associated with oxygen production in Secunda by 2031.

Nicolas Poirot, Chief Executive Officer of the Africa Middle East & India hub, said, "Together with our long-term partner Sasol, we have secured massive amounts of renewable energy generation capacity. This will significantly contribute to the decarbonisation of our operations in Secunda and actively support the development of renewable energies in South Africa..."