NextSource Materials Inc. has completed the construction of a solar farm for the solar hybrid power plant at its Molo Graphite mine in Madagascar.
The Solar Hybrid Plant, owned and operated by CrossBoundary Energy (CBE) under a 20-year PPA, includes a 2.6 MW solar farm, a 3.1 MW thermal facility, and a 1 MWh battery energy storage system. The solar farm, constructed by CBE using local labor, consists of 4,902 photovoltaic panels covering 12,663 square meters. It is expected to produce approximately 4 GWh of clean energy per year, reducing costs and carbon emissions.
The final electrical interconnections are being completed, and the Solar Hybrid Plant aims to generate 33% of the mine’s power requirements from renewable energy. Additionally, NextSource and CBE plan to optimize the solar component by expanding the solar farm and exploring the potential addition of wind turbines to increase the mine’s renewable energy supply.
NextSource aims to become a vertically integrated global supplier of battery materials through mining and value-added processing of graphite and other minerals, with its Molo graphite project in Madagascar being one of the largest and highest-quality projects globally.
It is also developing a downstream graphite value-add business for battery anode production.
Source: PRESS RELEASE
Image of Molo Mine Solar Farm: NextSource