Displaying items by tag: Solar power

India: JSW Group is considering plans to build a 200MW solar plant next to its cement grinding plant at Salboni in West Bengal. The owner of JSW Cement is considering plans for land it owns at the site, according to the Press Trust of India. The group says it is in advanced talks with foreign contractors to build the US$124m project. However, if the proposal fails it will build a 36MW thermal power plant instead for use by the cement plant.

Namibia: Ohorongo Cement has held a ground breaking ceremony for a 5MW solar plant at its Sargberg cement plant in North Otavi. The site is being developed and built by Germany’s SunEQ and its local partner Hungileni. The US$7.8m project is scheduled to start operation by the end of 2017.

“Electricity is of paramount importance to our operations and constitutes 25% of our production requirements. We are aware of the country’s precarious energy situation and hence took the decision to tap into the renewable energy resource which our country is endowed with,” said Hans-Wilhelm Schutte, Ohorongo Cement’s managing director.

Ohorongo Cement has signed a 15-year power purchase agreement with SunEQ. Construction of the plant will start once SunEQ has obtained a generation license from the Electricity Control Board.

Jordan: LafargeHolcim’s Rashadiya cement plant is set to generate up to a quarter of its power from a solar plant that will start operations in July 2017. Dubai’s Adenium Energy Capital signed a deal for the cement producer to develop the photovoltaic (PV) facility, according to SeeNews. Previously the PV unit was reported to have a capacity of 15MW but this has not been confirmed. In October 2016 Adenium Energy Capital said it had commissioned four PV parks in Jordan with a total capacity of 50MW in total.

India: Dalmia Cement has committed to 100% renewable power and joined RE100, an initiate between the Climate Group and CDP (formerly the Carbon Disclosure Project). The new additions to RE100 take the total number of members to 83, and the total demand for renewable electricity being created to over 100TWhr.

“Being one of the greenest cement companies in the world, we are committed to decarbonising our operations in a way that makes business sense. We are scaling up our ambition to make a long term transition to 100% renewable power, achieving a fourfold increase in the percentage of renewable energy in our electricity consumption by 2030,” said Mahendra Singhi, Group CEO and Whole Time Director at Dalmia Cement (Bharat).

After adding 8MW solar photovoltaic capacity for its captive use, Dalmia Cement has set an interim target to increase its percentage of renewable energy consumption fourfold by 2030 compared to 2015, according to the Business Standard newspaper. Around 7% of the electricity used by Dalmia Cement, from the national grid and in-house generation, is based on renewable energy. Around 40% of the group’s locally generated power is based on renewables.

Jordan: Lafarge Jordan is set to start building a 15MW solar power unit for its Rashadiya cement plant in early 2017. The power plant, which is being built by Adenium Energy Capital, is expected to be operational by the third quarter of 2017, according to the Jordan Times newspaper. The agreement between Adenium and Lafarge was signed in late October 2016.

“This is an important milestone for the domestic industrial sector in general and the cement industry in particular as this agreement emphasises the positive role that industries can play in using alternative and renewable energy resources,” said Lafarge Jordan’s chief executive officer Amr Reda. This project will also follow the national Jordanian strategy for renewable energy launched by the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources in 2015.

India: OCL India has inaugurated a 5.5MW solar power plant for use by its cement grinding plant in Salboni, Bengal. The 1.35Mt/yr grinding plant was set up in 2014 with an investment of US$93m.

"Our plant at Paschim Medinipore is located strategically to ensure timely and faster delivery of cement across the state. West Bengal is an emerging market for infrastructure development with a host of projects under implementation and thereby auguring well for the cement industry in Eastern India. In our first year of operations in Medinipore we are already operating at 95% capacity utilisation," said Amandeep, director and CEO of OCL India. He added that the solar plant will be the first and largest of its kind in West Bengal

OCL India also operates two cement plants at Kapilash and Rajgangpur in Orissa with a combined production capacity of 5.35Mt/yr.

Chile: Chile's environmental authorities have approved a plan of Cemento Polpaico for the construction of a 23.5MW photovoltaic (PV) park as part of the country's power grid.

The approval envisages the installation of 243,120 modules near Cemento Polpaico's Cerro Blanco plant in Tiltil, Chacabuco. The solar facility will require an initial investment of US$42m and its energy will be injected into the grid through the existing interconnection with the Punta Peuco substation. The annual output is estimated at 44GWh. The company will need around 112 workers during the construction phase, which could start at the end of April 2016, and up to 10 workers during operation.

Dominican Republic: Cemex has launched operations at a 1.5MW solar energy complex in the Dominican Republic in line with its commitment to sustainability. The facility will supply 2.2MkWhr/yr of energy to Cemex's cement plant in San Pedro de Macoris. It features 5040 panels with high-tech inverters. It is the first solar power plant owned by Cemex in the Caribbean. The company aims to continue to invest in sustainable energy solutions, such as marine and wind power.

Colombia: Cemex is pursuing alternative energy sources, including landfill biogas, wind and solar energy, for its operations in Colombia. It has planned some US$50m of projects for the next five years. The company will look for partners among financial entities and investment funds, according to Edgar Angeles, Cemex's vice president of operations for Central, South America and the Caribbean.

Since the elaboration of Colombia's law on renewable energy, Cemex has been studying projects of this type. The law allows companies to invest in their own power supply and to sell any surplus on the wholesale market. Cemex wants to guarantee 100% of its power supply, compared to 65% now. It already has three small hydroelectric stations and a gas-fired plant in Colombia's Junin, Bucaramanga and Ibague municipalities.

Chile: On 20 May 2014 the environmental committee of Chile's Santiago Metropolitan region admitted for evaluation a 20MW solar power project from Chilean cement producer Cemento Polpaico.

Cemento Polpaico plans to invest US$42m in the Cerro Blanco photovoltaic park, which will be installed next to its cement plant in the Tiltil Municipality. The park will help to diversify Chile's energy mix and will supply renewable energy to the central power network (SIC), through the Punta Peuco substation, according to the environmental impact declaration. Construction is projected to commence in 2014.