South Africa Gets $497 Million to Produce Clean Energy From Coal Plant Site
- World Bank approves financing for renewable power projects
- Komati plant shut last fossil fuel-burning unit this week
The Komati power station in Mpumalanga, South Africa.
Photographer: Waldo Swiegers/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
A coal-fired plant in South Africa that shut its last unit this week secured $497 million from the World Bank and other funders to generate renewable energy from the site, a project that will serve as a working model for the transition away from fossil fuels.
The move toward cleaner energy is particularly complex in South Africa, which has chronic electricity shortages, is the world’s 13th-biggest source of greenhouse-gas emissions and has one of the highest unemployment rates. State-owned utility Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. generates more than 80% of the nation’s power from coal, produced from mines that employ about 90,000 workers.