The 50 MW Khanyisa solar PV facility at South Africa’s Gold Fields’ South Deep Mine has recently been finished being built. Khanyisa is Setswana for “Light Up.” The residents of South Deep picked the name. The plant’s commissioning and optimization are being completed by South Deep. To completely optimize the plant and ensure optimum profit, the commissioning process entails balancing supply and demand of self-generated electricity.
The R715 million ($38 million) solar power facility will improve South Deep’s sustainability and support Gold Fields’ long-term goal of Net Zero. By 2030, Gold Fields wants to use 30% renewable energy, and by 2050, it wants to be carbon neutral. Currently, South Deep uses about 494 GWh of energy annually, accounting for 10% of the mine’s total expenses and 93% of its carbon emissions. Coal is mostly used to power the South African grid.
The current maximum demand for South Deep is roughly 60 MW. The brand-new 50 MW plant will produce 103 GWh annually. The Khanyisa plant will significantly reduce energy expenditures, saving about R123 million ($6.7 million), or 24% of annual electricity prices. Additionally, it will lessen the mine’s annual carbon footprint by about 110,000 tonnes of CO2.
To gain even more advantages, there are plans to increase the Khanyisa solar plant’s capacity to 60 MW. “The solar plant will not only result in electrical cost savings and lessen our dependency on the unreliable national grid, but it will also assist to limit our influence on climate change,” said Martin Preece, Executive Vice President of Gold Fields South Africa. Decarbonization is necessary and morally right. We want to contribute to the answer, so we’ll keep pushing energy-saving efforts, switching to renewable energy sources like solar and wind in favor of grid power, and eventually replacing our fleet of diesel vehicles with battery-powered ones.
“South Deep has made considerable progress toward achieving sustainable performance,” he said in his conclusion. “We will keep working to position our mine for the future for our people, our communities, our stakeholders, and our shareholders.”
In addition to one project in Chile, Gold Fields Limited runs nine mines in Australia, Peru, South Africa, West Africa, and South Africa (including the Asanko Joint Venture).
The 340 x 150 kW inverters and 101,000 x 550W solar panels that make up the 50 MW solar facility. 12 permanent jobs were among the 240 that were generated during the plant’s construction. The solar farm has a surface area of 105 ha, or almost 200 soccer fields. The 50 MW solar PV system at South Deep Gold Mine owned by Gold Fields in South Africa is a stunning example of solar power. Large energy users can quickly increase their generation capacity to balance out their grid usage and take advantage of certain clean kWhs at significantly lower costs. In this instance, South Deep Mine will reduce its significant annual electric expenditure by about $7 million. The action will also help reduce the mines’ consumption of the coal-heavy grid in South Africa.
The limit for businesses in South Africa to generate their own electricity without a permit was raised from 1 MW to 100 MW last year. To encourage private sector investment in the electrical sector, a new threshold was introduced. This action is one of the quickest methods to close the nation’s enormous electricity producing sector deficit and will go a long way toward reducing pressure on Eskom, the national power utility business. We hope to see more of these substantial solar PV projects in the nation from big users.
photos taken at Gold Fields
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