Mobile electricity production units will soon be installed at Ambokatra, the main quarry supplying building materials in Madagascar. This is the aim of an agreement recently signed between Colas Madagascar and Green Energy Solutions (GES), a joint venture between the Axian group and the energy company GreenYellow. As part of this project, which is now underway, GES will install a power plant consisting of solar panels and two fully equipped containers.
The solar power plant will have a capacity of 148 kWp and will be equipped with a storage system to provide electricity after sunset or in bad weather. The entire system will be operated with a thermal power plant consisting of diesel generators capable of delivering 600 kW. Under the 7-year contract signed with Colas Madagascar, GES will finance the entire project.
For Christian Cachat, GES’ Managing Director, this is a “technically ambitious project, which will have a significant impact in terms of carbon savings and operating comfort. It will be the first modular industrial hybrid solar power plant that allows us to commit to a medium-term contract and whose installations can be redeployed. This is, for me, the real innovation of this project. According to GreenYellow, the future facilities will enable Colas Madagascar to avoid 90 tonnes of CO2 emissions per year.
GES plans to commission the containerised plant by the end of June 2021. The off-grid system will also be operated by the Tananarive-based company, which is the result of a merger between the Axian and GreenYellow groups.
Jean Marie Takouleu