JUWI has confirmed that it is in the final stages of commissioning what it says is the world’s largest solar hybrid project at Centamin’s Sukari gold operation in Egypt.
The system at the operation about 400 kilometres south of Sharm El-Sheikh is made up of a 36-megawatt solar farm and a 7.5-MW battery-energy storage system. Both have been integrated into the existing diesel power station at the site.
The system, which JUWI designed, was created to maximize generation with bifacial solar PV modules and a single axis tracking system to take advantage of the high irradiance on site.
The JUWI Hybrid IQ micro-grid technology will enable the integration of the solar and battery system into the existing off-grid network, and it will support the operation of the existing power station.
Benefits of the Sukari system, the company said, includes a reduction in exposure to volatile fuel pricing with commissioning savings of up to 70,000 liters of diesel per day and averaging a reduction in diesel consumption of 22 million liters per annum. It also will lower carbon emissions by an estimated 60,000 tCO2- per annum and a subsequent reduction in the volume of diesel trucked to the site
As an additional advantage, it will help reduce operating costs for the operator.
“We are delighted to have been able to deliver this flagship project to Centamin and, furthermore, to have been able to demonstrate the vital role that dependable solar, wind and battery solutions can already play in the transformation of the resource sector on the decarbonization pathway,” said COO and MD Stephan Hansen.
JUWI was also responsible for the world’s first utility-scale solar-battery hybrid project at the DeGrussa copper mine in Australia.
Earlier this month, Centamin said it received a report back from its independent consultant Entech that revealed its expansion of the Sukari underground mine in Egypt could return a 31% improvement in its mining rate.
It is aiming to fully engineer and schedule the expansion during the first half of next year, then ramp up in 2024 with a target steady-state rate in 2025.
Sukari, Egypt’s largest and first modern gold mine, has been in production since 2009. It has a future mine life of about 12 years.
Source: juwi.com and centamin.com