TOTAL Eren, a renewable energy company, opened the world’s largest solar-thermal hybrid plant in Burkina Faso – the first of what it hopes will be many projects supplying the African mining industry’s growing need for power, said Reuters.
Total Eren and Africa-focused independent power producer AEMP inaugurated Essakane Solar over the weekend, adding 15 megawatts (MW) of solar capacity to an existing 57MW heavy fuel oil power plant at Toronto-listed IAMGOLD’s Essakane mine.
Christophe Fleurence, Total Eren’s vice-president for business development in Africa, told Reuters the plan was to replicate this with other mining projects.
“It’s gathering pace in terms of interest in all the discussions we’ve had with our contacts in the mining industry,” Fleurence said. Mining companies operating in remote areas have long relied on thermal power plants, making their operations carbon-intensive and their costs vulnerable to fluctuations in world oil prices, said Reuters.
