CrossBoundary Energy’s project portfolio is growing in West Africa. The electricity access solutions provider has signed an agreement with Grande Côte Operations(GCO) to build a hybrid solar power plant in Diogo, north-western Senegal. The subsidiary of the French mining and metallurgical group Eramet mines mineral sands in this locality, which is located more than 100 km from the Senegalese capital Dakar. This activity requires a significant amount of energy.
Grande Côte Operations now wants to produce this energy from renewable sources, in particular PV solar energy, hence the partnership with CrossBoundary Energy. The Nairobi, Kenya-based company will finance, build and operate a 13 megawatt hybrid solar power plant, which will be connected to a battery storage system capable of storing 8 megawatt of electricity to meet the quarry’s needs after sunset or during bad weather.
Reducing Grande Côte Operations’s carbon footprint.
On site, the solar panels and batteries will be installed by juwi Renewable Energies, a subsidiary of juwi AG. Under the agreement signed between the 2 companies, Grande Côte Operations will purchase the electricity generated by the CrossBoundary solar power plant for a period of 15 years.
“The clean, renewable and available energy from this hybrid plant will contribute to Grande Côte Operations’s environmental and economic performance. The environmental value of the raw materials, titanium and zircon that Grande Côte Operations produces will be positively impacted. This concrete commitment to low-carbon energy reflects the values and ambition of Grande Côte Operations and Eramet’s teams to provide solutions to the climate challenge and to the well-being of all,” explains Guillaume Kurek, CEO of Grande Côte Operations.
CrossBoundary plans to commission its hybrid solar power plant in early 2023. The installation will reduce Grande Côte Operations’s carbon footprint while improving its sustainability approach. CrossBoundary estimates that the plant will reduce carbon Dioxide emissions from Grande Côte Operations’s operations by 40 per cent by year 2035. This is another major project that CrossBoundary will undertake in West Africa. A few months ago, the clean energy provider installed a 1095 kWp solar power plant on the roof of the Guinness Ghana Breweries brewery in Achimota in the Accra metropolitan district.
