Fate of Karpowership in limbo
CAPE TOWN – The Department of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment (DFFE) has refused environmental authorisation for one of Karpowership South Africa’s (SA) proposed projects, and two other projects have hit hiccups in the decision-making process.
The DFFE issued an update on Friday afternoon regarding its decision-making around the environmental authorisation sought by the Turkish power company. The company’s SA division was named one of the preferred bidders in the emergency power programme, launched in 2020, for SA to procure as much as 2000 megawatts (MW) of power on an urgent basis.
Karpowership’s proposed projects at three of SA’s ports – Saldanha Bay in the Western Cape, Richards Bay in KwaZulu-Natal and Ngqura in Eastern
Cape, would have provided the bulk - or 1 220MW - of the electricity for the emergency power programme.
Gas
by the DFFE in 2021 due to gaps in its public consultation processes. The company subsequently lost its appeals, but was granted a second chance to resubmit environmental authorisation applications.
The company held new rounds of public consultations late last year. It resubmitted environmental impact assessment (EIA) reports in January 2023 for decision-making, the DFFE said in its statement.
Refused
The DFFE has now refused one of the applications - the project at the Port of Ngqura within the Coega Special Economic Zone.
There were two grounds on which the environmental authorisation was refused. One of these being failing to comply with requirements of the EIA regulations.
Secondly, there is a conflicting situation with a proposed port development programme by Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA) and the proposed location of the power ships.
According to the DFFE, the
TNPA had already been granted environmental authorisation for construction which should start from 2024/25.
TNPA had written to the department on February 6, 2023, raising its concerns that the Karpowership location conflicts with its future port development framework.
The DFFE noted that environmental assessment practitioner for Karpowership SA failed to adequately consider the concerns of TNPA and ‘failed to engage’ with TNPA to find alternative or viable locations in the port for Karpowership.
Appeal
Karpowership SA has just under three weeks to indicate whether it will appeal and submit relevant documents.
As for the proposed project at the Port of Saldanha, the department had received a complaint from environmental non-profit organisation, The Green Connection, on March 6, 2023 (a day before the department’s decision was due), raising concerns of non-compliance related to the public consultation process.