GreenVolt to install Europe’s largest self-consumption photovoltaic plant in the Alentejo
Almina - Minas do Alentejo is the company that will install the panels to produce around a quarter of the respective electricity.
GreenVolt Next will install at Almina – Minas do Alentejo, a company in Aljustrel, Europe’s largest self-consumption photovoltaic, the company announced in a statement. The project foresees the installation of around 44,500 solar panels with 24.4 MWp total installed power.
Annual production will exceed 41,000 MWh (megawatt-hours), allowing for a reduction in Almina’s carbon dioxide emissions. It will permit supplying 25% of the company’s needs and will avoid the emission of 20,104 tons of CO2 yearly.
This will be Europe’s largest Production Unit for Self-Consumption (UPAC). The Portuguese company, which is dedicated to mining and focuses on the extraction and valorisation of pyrites, sulphides and other ores, will occupy an area of around 35 hectares with this UPRAC.
Besides the solar photovoltaic panels that will be installed on the ground, a carport, a car parking system with solar panels, will also be implemented, with an installed capacity of 1 MWp, which will produce approximately 1,553 MWh annually, and will feed Almina’s “increasingly electrified” automobile fleet.
João Manso Neto, CEO of GreenVolt, highlights the strategic option of Almina – Minas do Alentejo: “to seek a solution that has a strong economic rationale since it will allow it an important stability in energy costs in a period of very high prices, but it is also revealing of the growing awareness of companies regarding the impact they have on the environment.”
“We want, with this investment, to increase the efficiency of our consumption, reducing the associated costs, but also taking an important step towards reducing our carbon footprint,” says Humberto da Costa Leite, CEO of Almina.
