Further engineering and maintenance opportunities may be available as Sandfire Resources begins installation of PV panels in a new 10.6MW solar power station at its DeGrussa Copper Mine, in Western Australia.
Sandfire Resources says installation of the steel posts is now complete, with site electrical work in progress to allow connection of the 10MW facility to the existing diesel-fired power station at the DeGrussa site.
It has also started installing the first solar photovoltaic (PV) panels, with the overall project on track for completion in Q1 of 2016.
The $40 million project is set to be the largest integrated off-grid solar and battery storage facility in Australia. It will consist of 34,080 solar PV panels covering a total area of over 20 hectares, located immediately adjacent to the DeGrussa underground mine and processing plant. The power generated by this facility will be used by the mine.
Construction of the solar power facility started in mid-July 2015, and progressed from the clearing and levelling of the site to the installation of 4,700 steel posts, which will be used to mount the single axis tracking system and solar PV panels.
Once complete, the system will allow the panels to track the sun during the day, in order to optimise solar conversion performance.
Sandfire Resources and its contractors are currently installing underground electrical infrastructure, including conduits, which will enable low-voltage and communication cabling to interconnect the panels. The facility will ultimately
including conduits ready for low-voltage and communication cabling to connect the panels to each other, and to link the facility to the 6 MW lithium-ion battery storage facility as well as the diesel power station.
The solar PV modules will be completely installed early in 2016, followed by other installation work, such as the solar inverter, transformers and other electrical and control systems.
The diesel-fired power station will provide the DeGrussa mine, its process plant and the underground facilities with the base-load power supply, with the solar component providing additional power.
According to SandFire’s Managing Director, Karl Simich, the project will set a new benchmark for the use of renewable energy at remote mine sites in the resource sector, reducing diesel consumption and cutting carbon emissions at DeGrussa by more than 12,000 tonnes of CO2 annually.
“This is the first time that a major off-grid solar power facility with an integrated battery storage unit has been installed on a remote site in conjunction with an existing diesel-fired power station to service a highly critical operation such as an underground mine and processing plant, where safety and continuity of operations are paramount,” he said.
“This is a first for the mining industry, a first for the power generation industry and a first in the rapidly growing field of renewable energy. We are all looking forward to its completion and successful commissioning of this state-of-the-art project early next year.”