Online Reporter
Business Reporter
Unki Platinum Mine will commission its 10-megawatt solar power plant in August this year, the company has said.
The primary phase of the project entails the construction of a 10MW solar farm specifically designed to strengthen immediate energy resilience, reduce utility costs and curb operational emission exposure.
The technical setup of the upcoming facility relies on a dense installation of 19 800 specialised bifacial solar panels.
These panels are unique because they absorb sunlight from both sides—capturing direct rays from the sun on the front and reflected light from the ground on the back.
Each panel is rated at 595 watts and can produce a maximum 11,7 megawatts of raw solar power at peak daylight.
To make this electricity usable for the mine, the power from the panels will flow into 33 individual high-capacity inverters, which convert the raw solar energy into standard alternating current (AC) electricity, delivering a steady flow of 10,6 megawatts of usable power.
Thereafter, the electrical output will be safely managed and directed into the mine’s power grid through three dedicated collector stations, which act like distribution hubs to route the clean energy at a steady 11 000 volts.
Looking ahead, Unki management has built flexibility into the near-term infrastructure layout, ensuring a clear opportunity to scale up the facility’s total output to 25MW as future operational demands grow.
Alongside this renewable energy rollout, Unki is concurrently pursuing rigorous energy efficiency optimisations across its extraction circuits to systematically lower its aggregate energy consumption.
This comprehensive green energy project serves as a core component of the mine’s broader climate-action framework.
The strategy targets a 30 percent reduction in Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions by 2030 against a 2016 operational baseline, positioning the platinum producer to achieve complete operational carbon neutrality by the year 2040.
