Independent consultant Suntrace and its partner, renewable energy company BayWa R.E., have completed commissioning of the plant, according to a joint statement.
B2Gold selected Suntrace, together with its partner BayWa R.E. as Engineering and Procurement contractor for the project in October 2019.
The plant is the"world's largest" off-grid solar-battery hybrid system built for the mining industry, the companies said today.
The companies said the solar-battery hybrid plant has now been integrated successfully with the existing power plant operation, and that the solar plant is on course to be 100% complete by the end of June.
The hybrid plant, part of a US$38 million project launched by B2Gold in 2019, features a 30MW solar plant that replaces the power generated from three out of six heavy fuel oil generators, said Suntrace and BayWa R.E.
The hybrid plant, which has 15.4 MWh in battery storage capacity, reduces CO2 emissions from power generation for the Fekola mine by 39 000 tonnes per year or about 20%, said the renewable energy companies.
Together, the solar and battery storage enables up to 75% of the electricity demand of the gold mine to be covered by renewable energy during the daytime, said the companies.
B2Gold approved the US$38million project for implementation in 2019.
"The implementation of a solar-battery hybrid system was an obvious choice to help achieve [more sustainable production at Fekola], not only for its environmental credentials, but also its economic viability," said Dennis Stansbury, senior vice president at B2Gold.
Martin Schlecht, COO at Suntrace, noted that B2Gold and BayWa r.e., we were able to manage the completion despite the global challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
"We are proud to jointly deliver a functioning project, well integrated with the mining operations, which reduces CO2 emissions from power generation for the Fekola mine by roughly 20%," said Schlecht.
Thorsten Althaus, project manager at BayWa re, added: "Integrating such a large amount of solar into a small, isolated grid safely and reliably has been a major technical challenge and required the use of battery storage as well as a tailor-made control system. This was conceptualised in the early stages of the project and we ensured that our vision was implemented accordingly by the suppliers.
