Enerwhere and Al Barrak Crushers inked a long-term deal today under which Enerwhere will finance, manage, and maintain a 4.1 MVA solar-hybrid microgrid to power Al Barrak’s quarry near Fujairah.
The deal was signed in the presence of Juan Saleh, General Manager of Al Barrak Crushers, and Daniel Zywietz, Founder & CEO of Enerwhere Sustainable Energy.
Mr. Zywietz stated, “We are quite delighted to have been picked by Al Barrak to provide electricity to their whole business, especially given the technical hurdles involved.” However, given our expertise powering enormous motors on tower cranes and other heavy gear, we thought we were qualified for the job – and the Al Barrak team gratefully agreed.
“Combating climate change is an important duty for everyone today, and the mining business is no different,” stated Juan Saleh, General Manager of Al Barrak Crushers. Shifting our energy use to solar energy is thus a crucial step in our road toward sustainability. But, in order to do so, we needed to identify the proper local partner with the necessary technical skills for such a complicated and demanding power environment. We feel Enerwhere has the ideal personnel for the assignment based on their track experience in this area.”
The approximately 3,000 solar panels will be positioned on top of a hill overlooking the quarry, keeping them out of the dust plume produced by the crushing operations. Keeping the panels clean, however, will be one of the most difficult aspects of the process, necessitating near-daily cleaning.
Enerwhere uses its own state-of-the-art power management and control technology to integrate solar electricity into the microgrid, which enables real-time monitoring of site power requirements and maximises solar penetration by regulating the solar system, generators, and loads. Furthermore, Enerwhere intends to build batteries to boost the solar share by storing renewable solar energy generated during the day for use at night, so reducing carbon emissions and generator usage. As a result, Al Barrak’s quarry will be one of just a few mining enterprises in the world to use such a cutting-edge solar-diesel-battery hybrid system.
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