Plant counts by primary fuel, WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0).
Source: Ember / Our World in Data (CC BY 4.0).
Across the 23 South Africa power plants carrying an asset-level CO₂ figure in this open dataset, total emissions are about 211 Mt CO₂/yr. The single largest emitter, Medupi power station (coal), accounts for about 10% of that 23-plant reported subset (not of the whole country). The top three owners — Eskom, Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd, Sasol Synfuels Pty Ltd — control roughly 99% of that 23-plant reported subset. Most of these plants sit in a temperate Köppen climate zone.
CO₂ — measured (US EPA / EU ETS) or modelled (Climate TRACE), per plant · backbone WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0) · climate: Köppen-Geiger (WorldClim). CC BY 4.0.
| # | Plant | Fuel | MW |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kusile Power Station | Coal | 4,800 |
| 2 | Medupi West power station | Coal | 4,800 |
| 3 | Medupi power station | Coal | 4,769 |
| 4 | Majuba power station | Coal | 4,143 |
| 5 | Kendal power station | Coal | 4,116 |
| 6 | Matimba power station | Coal | 3,990 |
| 7 | Lethabo power station | Coal | 3,708 |
| 8 | Tutuka power station | Coal | 3,654 |
| 9 | Matla power station | Coal | 3,600 |
| 10 | Richards Bay (Mhlathuze Energy) power station | Gas | 3,300 |
| 11 | Musina-Makhado power station | Coal | 3,300 |
| 12 | Duvha power station | Coal | 3,000 |
| 13 | Kriel power station | Coal | 3,000 |
| 14 | Coega power station | Gas | 3,000 |
| 15 | Richards Bay (Eskom) power station | Gas | 3,000 |
| 16 | Nseleni Independent Floating power station | Gas | 2,800 |
| 17 | Arnot power station | Coal | 2,352 |
| 18 | Hendrina power station | Coal | 2,000 |
| 19 | Phakwe Richards Bay Power Plant | Gas | 2,000 |
| 20 | Koeberg | Nuclear | 1,940 |
Inzonex PowerAtlas (2026). Asset-level power-plant CO2 emissions — South Africa. Derived from WRI GPPD, Climate TRACE, US EPA GHGRP and EU ETS (CC BY 4.0). https://inzonex.co.uk/poweratlas/south-africa/
There are 152 power plants in South Africa in this open dataset, with about 98,657 MW of total capacity.
Kusile Power Station is the largest at about 4,800 MW (coal).
The most common plant type in this dataset is solar (44 plants), across 10 fuel types in total.
South Africa's grid carbon intensity is about 699 gCO₂/kWh, with 17.8% low-carbon generation (<a href="https://ember-energy.org/" rel="nofollow">Ember</a> / <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/energy" rel="nofollow">Our World in Data</a> (CC BY 4.0)).
Power plants in South Africa