POWER FOR MINES
“ We are very excited about the mutual benefits our renewed alliance brings, and appreciate the increased collaboration between our two companies,” said John Campion, Chairman of APR Energy.“ Our partnership will provide APR Energy access to new leads and opportunities throughout the GE global network, helping to support our business growth and thereby increasing demand for GE equipment. The alliance also provides us with the latest generation of TM2500 + units, giving us the newest fleet in the industry, while benefiting customers with the latest advancements in fuel efficiency and emissions controls.”
Hybrid power
Aggreko has signed a 10-year deal to provide solar-diesel hybrid power to Nevsun in Eritrea. The company will supply 22 MW of diesel and 7.5 MW of solar-generated power for the mine’ s copper and zinc operations.
Aggreko’ s CEO, Chris Weston:“ Technology never stands still, and neither does Aggreko. Our mobile, modular power enables us to make a massive difference to the communities and industries we serve, and our solar-diesel hybrid offering is an example of an innovation that brings cost-effective, reliable, uninterrupted power with additional fuel flexibility to customers.”
Aggreko’ s solar-diesel hybrid power package combines cost-effectiveness and green
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The hybrid program was developed at Aggreko’ s state of the art manufacturing and technology centre in Dumbarton, Scotland, and uses the latest diesel generators, which are considered to be the most efficient in the world. They are monitored using Aggreko Remote Monitoring( ARM) telemetry to ensure optimum operational and fuel efficiencies.
Aggreko notes solar power is now“ more affordable than ever, but it can be intermittent and unreliable. Night falls or clouds come in and power is lost. Seasons change and power capacity drops, which means that your business cannot rely on it as a sole energy source. Diesel power is reliable, so you can have electricity round the clock. But for off-grid customers diesel fuel is often a high proportion of operating costs.
“ Our solar-diesel hybrid package combines seamlessly both sources of energy thanks to a state-of-the-art energy management system, minimising operating costs without compromising on reliability. This gives you reliable power, 24 / 7, with cost savings of up to 20 % over diesel only power all packaged into a single contract.”
A power purchase agreement has been signed between IAMGOLD Essakane, EREN Renewable Energy, AREN ENERGY and Essakane Solar to begin the development of a 15 MWp solar power plant for IAMGOLD’ s Essakane mine in Burkina Faso. The agreement is for an initial period of up to 15 years. The mine is located about 330 km northeast of the Burkinabe capital city, Ouagadougou. Jointly owned by IAMGOLD( 90 %) and the Government of Burkina Faso( 10 %), IAMGOLD Essakane, which owns
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Working with miners to develop clean, costeffective and reliable power sources is not a new concept for Aggreko. It developed an innovative approach to such a problem in partnership with Sibanye Gold at its Beatrix gold mining operation in South Africa. The infrastructure allowed Aggreko to capture naturally occurring methane gas intersected during underground mining operations to create a self-sufficient, free source of fuel that would otherwise have been wasted as flare gas
produces over 400,000 oz / y of gold. Essakane Solar, a local entity created by the project developers, will operate the solar power plant that sells the energy to the Essakane mine.
“ Hybrid power systems enable energy intensive industries, such as mines, to reduce fuel consumption, decrease energy costs, protect against fuel price volatility, as well as improve their social and environmental footprint by cutting greenhouse gas emissions and boosting local employment,” commented President and CEO of IAMGOLD Steve Letwin.“ This 15 MWp solar project may only be the beginning for our Essakane mine, but IAMGOLD is already well on its way to increase the proportion of renewables to 15 % of its total energy needs within three to five years. Switching power generation to renewables has been on IAMGOLD ' s agenda for several years as evidenced by the 5 MW solar power plant that was installed in 2014 at the company’ s Rosebel gold mine in Suriname.”
With the transition to processing harder ore, energy consumption at the Essakane mine has increased from about 14 GWh / month in 2013 to 26 GWh / month in 2015. In light of this, IAMGOLD Essakane decided to partner with EREN Renewable Energy( EREN RE), a global renewable energy independent power producer( IPP), and AEMP, a South-African based developer and independent power producer, to push the frontier of innovation in power solutions to mines. Together they are constructing solar capacity to complement the existing 57 MW heavy fuel oil( HFO) power plant. In the project ' s first phase, 15 MWp of solar capacity would be built and the hybridisation of IAMGOLD Essakane ' s HFO power plant will allow savings of approximately 6 million litres of fuel and a reduction of 18,500 t / y of CO 2.
32 International Mining | JANUARY 2018