KM_C654e-20210623174823

The Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) of South Africa has refused an application for Environmental Authorisation submitted by Karpowership SA (Pty) Ltd for a 415MW Gas to Power Powership Project at the Port of Saldanha. The refusal is based on significant failures in the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) process, including inadequate public consultation, gaps in specialist studies, and non-compliance with legislative requirements.

• The Competent Authority refused the application for Environmental Authorisation for the 415MW Gas to Power Powership Project at the Port of Saldanha because the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) process was compromised. Specifically, the applicant failed to comply with public consultation and information gathering requirements under Section 24(1A)(c) of NEMA, and the draft EIAr was available for public review for less than the legislated 30 days.
• The Environmental Assessment Practitioner (EAP) failed to follow Regulation 23(1)(b) of the EIA Regulations, 2014, by including significant changes and new information in the April 2021 EIAr that were not presented to interested and affected parties (I&APs) during the public participation process.
• The application was found deficient because the EAP did not provide a clear, final list of all applicable listed activities, despite multiple warnings from the Competent Authority. This uncertainty prevented the authority from making an informed decision on the potential impacts of the project's infrastructure on the environment.
• The project lacked a critical noise modelling study to quantify the impact of powership operations on the surrounding marine ecology, a gap highlighted by the Marine Ecology Specialist Study and the estuarine specialist.
• Specialist studies were deemed inadequate due to limited timeframes, incorrect seasonal timing, and a failure to address regional and global scale impacts. A SACNASP Peer Review of the Estuarine Impact Report indicated that identified impacts did not truly reflect the scale of the project, yet this peer review was omitted from the application.
• The project's technical scope included two floating mobile Powerships and a Floating Storage Regasification Unit (FSRU) with a design capacity of approximately 415MW (or 445MW in some sections), involving 21 gas reciprocating engines and 2 steam turbines, as well as subsea gas pipelines and transmission lines to the national grid.

APA

Centre for Environmental Rights (n.d.). KM_C654e-20210623174823. https://cer.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/DFFE-Karpowership-Saldanha-EA-refusal-23.06.2021.pdf?x21779

Chicago

Centre for Environmental Rights. KM_C654e-20210623174823. n.d. https://cer.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/DFFE-Karpowership-Saldanha-EA-refusal-23.06.2021.pdf?x21779.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |author=Centre for Environmental Rights |title=KM_C654e-20210623174823 |url=https://cer.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/DFFE-Karpowership-Saldanha-EA-refusal-23.06.2021.pdf?x21779 |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{centreforenvironmentalrightsndkmc654e20210623174823, author = {{Centre for Environmental Rights}}, title = {{KM\_C654e-20210623174823}}, publisher = {Centre for Environmental Rights}, url = {https://cer.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/DFFE-Karpowership-Saldanha-EA-refusal-23.06.2021.pdf?x21779}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }