GDSA- Good Hope Battery Energy Storage System and associated infrastructure, Free State

Globeleq Development Southern Africa (Pty) Ltd (GDSA) will be the sole shareholder of Good Hope BESS (Pty) Ltd, once incorporated, and proposes to develop a stand-alone Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) and its associated infrastructure within the within the Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality, Free State Province. The BESS facility is located on Portion 6 of Farm Spes Bona No.2355 situated approximately 14km west of Bloemfontein and have a contracted capacity of 123 MW /492MWh with a development footprint of approximately 11ha.

The proposed development requires the BESS to be registered with the competent authority, the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE). This is in terms of Government Notice (GN) 4557 - Norm for the Exclusion of Identified Activities Associated with the Development and Expansion of Battery Storage Facilities in Areas of Low or Medium Environmental Sensitivity.

GN 4557 has been prepared to provide rules for activities associated with the development and expansion of battery storage facilities. These activities are identified under section 24(2)(a) and (b) of the National Environmental Management Act, 1998 (NEMA). They are also contained in the Environmental Impact Assessment Regulations (EIA) Listing Notice 1, 2, or 3 of 2014, promulgated under section 24(5) of NEMA.

SLR Consulting (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd (SLR) has been appointed by GDSA as the independent Environmental Assessment Practitioner (EAP) to undertake the required BESS Registration process and manage the Public Participation Process for the proposed project.

Status

Notice is hereby given, in terms of the EIA Regulations, 2014 promulgated under NEMA, that the Site Sensitivity Report and Environmental Management Programme (EMPr) prepared for the above-mentioned project has been made available for a 30-day public review and comment period.

Should you and/or your organisation wish to comment on any aspect of the Reports, comments should be forwarded to SLR at the email address and telephone number shown above.

By providing your personal information to submit a comment, you will be included in the SLR an Interested and Affected Party (I&AP) database, and you consent to SLR managing your information in accordance with the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013. It is assumed that as an I&AP for this Project you authorise SLR to retain and use your Personal Information as part of a contact database for this and/or other Social and Environmental Impact Assessments (ESIA) and that you confirm your acceptance for SLR to contact you regarding this and/or other ESIA processes. SLR will not process your Personal Information, other than as permitted or required by ESIA processes, or as required by law or public policy. SLR will use reasonable, appropriate security safeguards to protect Personal Information, and to reasonably prevent any damage to, loss of, or unauthorised access or disclosure of Personal Information, other than as required for ESIA processes or as required by any Law or public policy. You may request for your Personal Information to be deleted from the I&AP database at any time by contacting SLR.