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Juwi to Construct Solar Farm for Further Hybrid Project at Gold Mine in Australia

Brisbane, Australia / Wörrstadt, Germany - Hybrid power solutions offer the potential to significantly reduce the use of fossil fuels in off-grid environments. At the same time, they produce reliable electricity at competitive prices.

Brisbane, Australia / Wörrstadt, Germany - Hybrid power solutions offer the potential to significantly reduce the use of fossil fuels in off-grid environments. At the same time, they produce reliable electricity at competitive prices.

This makes them ideal for supplying energy to mine sites, among other things. The Australian subsidiary of the German project developer Juwi has been awarded the contract to build the solar component for a hybrid system at a gold mine in Western Australia.

Juwi Renewable Energy Pty Ltd, the Australian subsidiary of German renewable energy project developer Juwi, and APA, the power plant operator of Australia's Gruyere Gold Mine, have signed a contract to build a 13.6 megawatt (MW) solar farm. The solar plant is part of a PV-gas-battery hybrid solution that will meet the mine site's future electricity needs. Construction is expected to begin shortly. Commissioning of the solar park is planned for later this year.

In the first phase of expansion, APA will initially add f a twelfth reciprocating gas-fired engine to the mine's power plant. This expansion is expected to be commissioned in mid-2021. As part of the second phase, juwi Renewable Energy was contracted to deliver a 13MWp solar farm. APA will also back up the solar with a 4.4MW/4.4MWh battery energy storage system. The Gruyere Microgrid is expected to be commissioned in the fourth quarter of 2021.

"We look forward to assisting APA and the mine owners, a 50:50 joint venture between Gold Road Resources Ltd and the global miner Gold Fields Limited (together ‘Gruyere JV’), to help reduce the overall carbon intensity and cost of power supply to the Gruyere Gold Mine," said Dave Manning, Director Global Hybrid at Juwi, at the contract signing. Installation of the renewable component will reduce the mine's CO2 emissions by an estimated 16,000 tons per year, according to Juwi.

Five more hybrid solutions under construction in Australia and South Africa

In addition to the development and operational management of wind and solar farms, the construction of hybrid power plants for non-grid industries, such as mines, is an important growth segment for the Juwi Group. The PV and/or wind power plants built in these projects are supplemented with storage units. These can then be integrated into existing island grids using the "Juwi Hybrid IQ" software developed by Juwi.

Juwi is currently building five more hybrid projects on a power plant scale. In Australia, these are the Esperance project for Horizon Power, Jacinth Ambrosia for Iluka Resources, Jabiru for the Northern Territory government and now Gruyere. Juwi is also building a 10-megawatt solar farm in South Africa to supply its own electricity to a gold mine located around 120 kilometers southeast of Johannesburg.



Source: IWR Online, 16 Apr 2021

 


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