Displaying items by tag: Solar power

Spain: Construction work has started on 6.2MW solar plant that will supply electricity to Cementos Cosmos’ Toral de los Vados integrated plant in León. Commissioning is scheduled by February 2022. The photovoltaic plant will include over 11,400 solar panels in an area of around 10 hectares. It will meet 15% of the plant’s electricity demands. Spain-based solar specialist EIDF (Energía, Innovación y Desarrollo Fotovoltaico) is supplying the unit at a previously reported cost of Euro4m.

Spain: Acciona and Enagás-led consortium Power to Green Hydrogen Mallorca has begun the construction of one of two planned solar power plants at Cemex España’s Lloseta plant in Majorca. The first, 13,500MWh/yr, plant will consist of 16,600 solar panels. A second, 10,800MWh/yr plant consisting of 12,700 panels will subsequently bring the total power capacity to 24,300MWh/yr. This is enough to produce 300t/yr of green hydrogen for the Lloseta cement plant’s operations.

The project to develop a ‘renewable hydrogen ecosystem’ in Majorca currently has Euro10.0m-worth of funding. The consortium has agreed with local to sheep farmers to allow the latter to use the solar power plant sites for grazing after construction is finished.

India: Germany-based HeidelbergCement subsidiary HeidelbergCement India has secured 22GWh-worth of power from Lalganj Power. The energy company will source the electricity from its solar power plants. The deal is expected to reduce the company’s CO₂ emissions by 0.4Mt over the life of the contract.

Pakistan: Bestway Cement and Reon Energy have commissioned a 14.3MW captive solar power unit at the former’s integrated cement plant at Farooqia, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The unit is part of a 50MW project deal that is planned to install solar units at the cement producer’s plant at Farooqia, Chakwal, Kallar Kahar and Hattar, according to the Pakistan Observer newspaper. Energy generated at the new solar plant at Farooqia is expected to reduce energy costs and reduce reliance on the national electricity grid.

Spain: Cemex España reopened its Lloseta cement plant in Majorca in mid-April 2021. The unit will start by operating at a low production level until demand levels build, according to the El País newspaper. The plant intends to use alternative fuels such as biomass to reduce its CO₂ emissions. It is also working with the Power to Green Hydrogen Mallorca project to use ‘green’ hydrogen created partly using solar energy. The plant now employs 20 people, compared to 96 before its closure in January 2019.

India: Birla Corporation has commissioned a 28MW solar power plant at a cement plant in Uttar Pradesh. EQ International has reported that Waaree Energies supplied 330kW and 335kW solar modules for the project. The subsidiary of Waaree Group is one of the largest solar photovoltaic module manufacturers in the country.

India: Prism Cement has established a 12MW waste heat recovery (WHR) plant and 10MW solar power plant at its 6.1Mt/yr-capacity integrated Prism cement plant in Satna, Madhya Pradesh. The plant’s total WHR capacity now totals 22MW, with a total of 23MW solar power capacity. The measures are part of the producer’s sustainability initiatives, by which it aims to reduce its reliance on non-renewables.

Dominican Republic/Philippines: Cemex says that it will commission two new energy saving installations at cement plants in the Dominican Republic and the Philippines in 2021. In the Dominican Republic, a new 41MW solar power plant will partly supply the company’s cement operations in the country. In the Philippines, it will commission a 4.5MW waste heat recovery (WHR) plant at its APO cement plant.

Poland: HeildelbergCement subsidiary Górażdże Group has signed a 10-year corporate Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with BayRa to buy electricity from the forthcoming Witnica solar power plant. The project is the first subsidy-free PPA-backed large-scale solar park in Poland. Due for completion in the first half of 2021, the solar park will be the largest in Poland, with a capacity of 64.6MWp.

“Here is the ultimate proof that photovoltaic power can – without any subsidies - be competitive to conventional energies, even in a European country further north, which still generates 80% of its electricity from coal,” said Benedikt Ortmann, Global Director of Solar Projects at BayWa. Andrea Grotzke, Global Director of Energy Solutions at BayWa added, “This PPA serves as an economic structure for a fixed price hedge against rising electricity costs. Securing energy from solar not only reduces a company’s CO₂ footprint. We are convinced that it also results in significant savings on the corporate energy bill.” BayWa has set the goal of constructing solar and wind projects in Poland with a total installed capacity of more than 1GW by the mid-2020s.

Mexico: Cementos Moctezuma is installing a 10MW solar power plant at its San Luis Potosí cement plant. Forbes Mexico has reported the estimated cost of the project as US$10m. It will consist of between 32,000 and 33,000 panels.

The company said, "The energy generated will be used at the Cerritos de Cementos Moctezuma plant, in order to replace a percentage of the electricity purchased from the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE), which is produced with fossil fuels and emits greenhouse gases.” It added that it aims to generate economic savings in the medium term as well as following its sustainability policies.