Hindustan Zinc Bags CII’s Award For 22 MW Solar Plant

One of the leading Indian zinc-lead and silver producers, Hindustan Zinc has won the ‘Best Application & Uses of Renewable Energy (Large Project)’ award at the 5th Edition of the CII National Energy Efficiency Circle Competition 2021 for its Rampura Agucha Mine’s 22 MW solar plant, based in Udaipur, Rajasthan. 

Hindustan Zinc, a Vedanta Group Company has developed a solar plant on a waste yard as Agucha Mine’s unique waste to wealth initiative.

The innovative design involved setting up the solar power plant on a waste dump yard, with a triple benefit of – making efficient use of the wasteland, saving environmental footprint through a renewable energy source, and annual GHG savings of over 45,000 tCO2e (metric tonnes of Carbon Dioxide Equivalent). 

Confronted with the challenge of a waste yard where any plantation or constructing any major structure due to its load-bearing capacity and height was a challenge hence, the engineers had to make something unique. So, they developed a plan to utilize this infertile land and indigenously set up a 22 MW solar plant. This ground-mounted ‘Gold Standard’ solar plant generated 48,083 MWh of green energy in FY21, contributing to 40 percent of RAM’s energy requirement and leading to a GHG saving of 45,528 tCO2e.

Hindustan Zinc claims to have a renewable portfolio of  40 MW for captive use across their locations in the state of Rajasthan. These generated 83,420 MWh of solar energy.  

According to the facts shared by the zinc producer with Saur Energy, it ranked first in the Asia- Pacific region and seventh globally in the metal and mining sector by the Dow Jones Sustainability Index. HZL is also among the only two mining companies globally and among only four Indian companies to be a part of the coveted CDP ‘A List’ 2020. 

Recently in February this year, HZL signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Epiroc Rock Drills AB for Zero Emission and Sustainable Mining by introducing Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV) in underground mining.