German renewable energy company supplies energy to Mali gold mine

    German renewable energy company Bayware and solar developer Suntrace GmbH built a 30MW/15.4MWh Solar Systems For Home solar + energy storage plant at the Canadian gold mining company B2Gold’s Fekola gold mine in Mali.

    Bayware explained that the mine operates 24 hours a day, and the solar plant will replace three of the six heavy fuel oil generators and reduce the production capacity of the other three generators during the day. "This 15.4MWh battery energy storage device can compensate for power generation fluctuations and ensure reliable operation, so that up to 75% of the gold mine's electricity demand during the day is provided by renewable energy," the company said in a statement.

    The two companies claim that this $38 million plant will save about 13.1 million liters of heavy fuel oil each year.

    "The safe and reliable integration of such a large amount of solar energy into a small independent power grid is a very big technical challenge, requiring the use of battery storage and a customized control system," said Baywer project manager Thorsten Althaus. "The initial stage of the project has been conceptualized to ensure that the suppliers will construct according to our vision." Finnish marine and energy solutions provider Wärtsilä provided the project with an energy storage system based on its GEMS software platform for energy monitoring and optimization . The company stated that the recovery period of similar projects is generally very short, because the fuel cost in extremely remote areas is very high.

    In October 2019, Suntrace and Bayware were selected to be responsible for project planning and construction.

    This is the second solar + energy storage project built at the Mali Gold Mine. In October, British petroleum supplier Vivo Energy stated that it had signed a power purchase agreement and was developing a project at the Nampala gold mine of Canadian mining company Robex Resources in Mali.