December 29 (SeeNews) - German copper producer Aurubis said that it plans an incremental investment of 20 million euro ($21.3 million) to expand the capacity of the in-house solar photovoltaic (PV) plant at its site in Pirdop, Bulgaria to 24 MW from current 10 MW.
As a first step, the company will invest 12 million euro, and will spend a further 8 million euro to acquire additional solar panels at an as-yet unspecified date, it said in a press release last week.
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The project in Bulgaria is part of a 530 million euro investment package which the German group's supervisory board has just approved with the aim of spurring sustainable business growth at the Aurubis' recycling plants in Georgia, U.S.; Hamburg, Germany; and the multi-metal production site in Pirdop, western Bulgaria.
The first stage of the Bulgarian solar park's expansion will be completed using stationary, double-sided modules that produce more energy than conventional PV modules, Aurubis noted. The enlarged power plant is set to be commissioned as early as 2024.
Aurubis Bulgaria commissioned its 10 MW solar park for own use at the end of 2021. The company has installed over 20,000 solar panels on reclaimed and recultivated former landfill area of 100,000 sq m.
Once all work is done on the expansion, the solar park in Pirdop will generate as much power as 9,000 households would consume in a year, saving 34,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions annually or over 500,000 tonnes for the 15-year lifetime of the park.
By 2030, Aurubis Bulgaria aims for the Pirdop site to cover 20% of its own energy needs from renewable sources.
The projects in the U.S., Germany and Bulgaria are estimated to increase by 130 million euro the group's annual earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA), the company added.
The investment package was unveiled as the German group reported its best-ever financial results for the 2021-2022 fiscal year to September 30, 2022.
Aurubis grew its pre-tax operating profit by 40% to 532 million euro as higher metal and sulfuric acid prices along strong demand for copper products more than offset the spike in energy costs. For the fiscal year 2022-2023, the company expects to book an operating pre-tax profit of between 400 million and 500 million euro.
($ = 0.9399 euro)
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