Power utility Eskom has started the construction of a 75MW solar power plant at Lethabo Power Station in the Free State province.
In a statement, the state-owned company says this marks the first step in integrating utility-scale renewable generation within Eskom’s existing coal-fired power station fleet infrastructure.
Once completed, the power utility says the plant is expected to generate approximately 147GWh of electricity annually, supplying power to an estimated 60 000 households.
In addition to its energy contribution, it notes, the project will create vital local economic opportunities and contribute significantly to skills development during both the construction and operational phases.
“Last week, we celebrated 365 days without load-shedding, as a result of the focused delivery over the past three years of the generation recovery plan by our skilled employees,” says Dan Marokane, Eskom CEO.
“Now that we have delivered a stable electricity platform for the South African economy to grow from, we can seamlessly enable the integration of renewable energy sources as required by the 2025 Integrated Resource Plan to maintain future energy security.
“We are playing our part in bringing online the new generation capacity required by focusing on the deep technical and institutional capability of our employees, built over decades of public investment, that remains a critical part of our national capacity towards delivering cleaner sources of energy.”
Renewable energy pipeline
The Lethabo 75MW solar power project forms part of Eskom’s broader pipeline of renewable energy and storage initiatives currently under development.
According to the company, it is one of 17 high-priority projects that will be implemented across Eskom’s existing coal-fired power station footprint, with construction expected to commence between now and 2028. Collectively, these projects are expected to deliver approximately 6GW of new capacity by 2030.
It adds that these developments will be strategically located at power stations, including Arnot, Duvha, Majuba, Tutuka, Lethabo, Komati, Kendal, Kusile, Hendrina, Camden and Grootvlei, leveraging existing infrastructure to accelerate deployment, reduce costs and strengthen grid resilience.
The Lethabo project also forms part of Eskom’s construction-ready pipeline of at least 2GW of renewable energy and pumped storage projects progressing during 2026. Funding for these projects has been provisioned within Eskom’s approved capital expenditure programme and will be financed through on-balance sheet funding, in line with National Treasury debt relief conditions, without reliance on additional project finance borrowing.
Utility-scale green electrons
Beyond the initial repurposing and repowering pipeline to be built within Eskom’s existing power station infrastructure, Eskom Green will adopt a proactive growth strategy that extends beyond Eskom-owned land and existing decommissioning sites.
The company explains that while these anchor projects provide a critical foundation, Eskom Green’s long-term value creation requires expanding into new geographic and technological opportunities.
To this end, Eskom Green will actively pursue partnerships, co-development opportunities and strategic acquisitions of advanced-stage development projects and operating renewable assets located in high-resource areas with superior wind and solar irradiation, the power utility notes.
“This approach enables Eskom Green to optimise its generation portfolio, diversify its revenue base, and ensure alignment with customer load profiles by balancing technologies such as pumped-storage, wind, PV, battery energy storage system and other alternatives such as green hydrogen,” it says.
“Eskom Green will provide a fit-for-purpose structure to facilitate utility-scale renewables through public-private partnerships, leveraging Eskom’s existing footprint and system knowledge.”
According to the company, the proposed funding framework ensures limited recourse to the Eskom balance sheet using project finance principles for the renewable energy projects through dedicated project special purpose vehicles.
“This will lead to the advancement of Eskom’s pipeline of more than 32GW of cost-competitive renewable energy and storage projects by 2040, to diversify its energy mix as part of the emissions reduction strategy and enable customers to decarbonise over the life of their operations,” it concludes.
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