NextSource Materials Inc. has completed the construction of a solar farm for the solar hybrid power plant in Madagascar. Solar hybrid power plant has installed the solar farm at its Molo Graphite mine in Madagascar. Additionally, phase 1 of the Molo mine is in the commissioning phase.
The Solar Hybrid Plant is owned and operated by CrossBoundary Energy (CBE) under a 20-year PPA. Additionally, the plant has 2.6 MW solar farm, 3.1 MW thermal facility, and 1 MWh battery energy storage system. The solar farm was constructed by CBE using local labor and consists of 4,902 photovoltaic panels covering 12,663 square meters. It is expected to produce approximately 4 GWh of clean energy per year, reducing costs and carbon emissions.
Importantly, the final electrical interconnections are being completed. Moreover, the Solar Hybrid Plant targets to generate 33% of the mine’s power requirements from renewable energy. The solar facility will be capable of supplying up to 100% of the plant’s power requirements during peak daylight hours. Moreover, the thermal facility will supply all off peak power requirements, thereby ensuring an uninterrupted power supply to the mine.
Significance of installation of solar farm at the Molo Graphite Mine
Additionally, NextSource and CBE plan to optimize the solar component by expanding the solar farm. Furthermore, the duo targets exploring the potential addition of wind turbines to increase the mine’s renewable energy supply.
NextSource aims to become a vertically integrated global supplier of battery materials through mining and value-added processing of graphite. Molo graphite project in Madagascar being one of the largest and highest-quality projects globally. Additionally, the plant also targets value-addition on other minerals.
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It is also developing a downstream graphite value-add business for battery anode production. Battery Anode Facilities are capable of large-scale production of coated, spheronized and purified graphite for direct delivery to battery. Additionally, the facility targets automotive customers outside of existing Asian supply chains, in a fully transparent and traceable manner.
NextSource Materials is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) under the symbol “NEXT” and on the OTCQB under the symbol “NSRCF”.
