Sasol CEO Fleetwood Grobler announced on Tuesday that the JSE-listed group had signed a total of five power purchase agreements (PPAs) in South Africa to date, increasing the company’s procurement of renewable energy for its South African operations to 550 MW.

He added that further agreements would be concluded this year in line with its goal of procuring 1 200 MW of renewable electricity by 2030.

Speaking during the release of the company’s interim results, Grobler confirmed that a further 260 MW of wind and solar electricity had been procured in partnership with Air Liquide, which operates 16 oxygen production units at Sasol’s Secunda complex, in Mpumalanga.

In a joint announcement, Sasol and Air Liquide reported that PPAs for wind and solar electricity had been signed with TotalEnergies and its partner Mulilo, which would build a 140 MW wind project and a 120 MW solar project and that the generators would be operational in 2025.

In January, the two companies also signed two PPAs with Enel Green Power for 220 MW of wind capacity as part of a commitment to jointly procure 900 MW, with Sasol procuring 500 MW and Air Liquide the 400 MW balance. To date, Sasol and Air Liquide have now jointly procured 480 MW.

Also in January, Sasol signed a PPA with the Msenge Emoyeni Wind Farm, in the Eastern Cape, for the supply of 69 MW to its Sasolburg site, in the Free State, where Sasol will use the renewable electricity to produce green hydrogen from water using an electrolyser.

The six-ton-a-day electrolyser is expected to be operational later this year and aims to use the green hydrogen produced to pilot various use cases, including various transport applications.

“Once these renewables projects are operational, they could reduce our Scope 2 emissions by approximately 1.8-million tons per annum,” Grobler told investors.

He also reported that Sasol and Topsoe had signed a memorandum of understanding to establish a 50/50 joint venture (JV) in 2023 to develop sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) solutions.

“The JV will develop, build, own and operate ventures producing SAF based on Sasol’s Fischer Tropsch technology and Topsoe’s relevant SAF technologies,” Grobler said.

Meanwhile, CFO Hanré Rossouw announced the establishment of Sasol Ventures, a chemicals-focused venture capital fund through which the group would invest €50-million over the next five years.

Sasol has partnered with Emerald Technology Ventures on the initiative and Sasol Ventures will pursue investments in startup and early-stage technologies that could support the South Africa group’s decarbonisation ambitions.

Sasol has committed to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by 30% by 2030 and has set a goal of becoming net-zero by 2050.