JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Mining major Anglo American has awarded SolarPower Africa the contract to build a 240 kWp grid-connected, ground-mounted photovoltaic (PV) system to provide electricity to the central administration offices at the Kriel colliery, in Mpumalanga.
SolarPower CEO Darren Hollander told Engineering News Online on Monday that construction of the R5-million system would start in mid-June and would take between six to eight weeks to complete.
SolarPower and its partner Women in Oil and Energy South Africa, provided mining houses the opportunity to buy electricity through the construction of PV plants near mines, after which the mine was required to sign a power purchase agreement for an agreed period of time.
“We are proud to be associated with Anglo American on this groundbreaking project for the mining industry in South Africa,” Hollander commented.
Since its establishment in 2003, SolarPower had installed in excess of 60 MW of PV capacity globally and had provided power solutions to global multinationals including Intel, Hewlett-Packard and MTN.