Essakane Mine. Photo by Iamgold [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia CommonsThe Banque Internationale pour le Commerce, l’Industrie et l’Artisanat du Burkina will provide $16.5 million in financing to Eren Renewable Energy for a 15 MW solar power plant in Burkina Faso.
The new project is the result of a March 2017 power purchase agreement between Essakane Solar and Iamgold. It is currently under construction at Iamgold’s Essakane site. The solar plant will connect to the mine’s heavy fuel plant, making the site the world’s largest hybrid solar photovoltaic-diesel facility.
The project will reduce the mine’s fuel consumption by about six million litres of diesel a year and lower its annual carbon dioxide emissions by around 18 500 t.
“This step marks the financial closure for what is a flagship project: after proving electricity generated from renewable energy could be cost-competitive and reliable for industrial customers such as mining companies,” Eren Africa business development VP Christophe Fleurence said. “We are now demonstrating that captive projects such as Essakane involving private buyers can be bankable and carried out without public subsidies.”
Read the full article at Mining Weekly.