Ferrexpo, a mining company with assets in Ukraine, has launched a pilot project of a 5 MW solar battery complex at the operating industrial site of Poltava Mining and Processing Plant (Poltava GOK) without a feed-in tariff, the company said.
“This is a pilot project, after which the company will move to a full-scale replacement of conventional electricity with renewable energy from the sun as part of the program of decarbonization of manufactured products. Ferrexpo plans to build a power plant for the production of renewable energy with a capacity of 250-1,000 MW in the medium term,” the document says.
According to the report, almost 10,000 photovoltaic panel of Jinko Solar were used in the implemented project, the panels are installed on the dumps of the quarries in order to rationalize the use of the area.
The cost, according to the press release, was “several million U.S. dollars.” The company financed it without using any state compensation programs, subsidies, grants or a feed-in tariff.
“We have achieved a market return on this project without any feed-in tariffs from the state, which should be an example for other enterprises building renewable energy generation facilities,” Ferrexpo said.
According to chairman of the board of Poltava GOK Viktor Lotous, the solar plant will generate 6.5-7 million kWh of electricity per year and supply it for consumption by the group’s enterprises at the operating industrial site.
“The launch of its own generation reduces the negative consequences of monopolization of the energy market for Ferrexpo due to the restriction of competition and the risks of an increase in the tariff for electricity transmission,” he said.
Ferrexpo owns 100% of shares in Poltava GOK, 100% in Yeristovo GOK and 99.9% in Belanovo GOK.
In 2020, the company increased its net profit by 57.5%, to $ 635.3 million with an increase in revenue by 12.8%, to $ 1.700 billion. Last year, Ferrexpo increased its total production of pellets by 7%, to 11.22 million tonnes, concentrate output increased by 5.9%, to 14 million tonnes.
In the first half of this year, Ferrexpo cut pellet production by 0.6%, to 5.563 million tonnes, but total production, which also includes commercial concentrate, rose by 2%, to 5.712 million tonnes.
