Yura to establish solar photovoltaic plant in Arequipa, Peru

Grupo Gloria subsidiary Yura plans to build a solar power plant in Yura, Arequipa. The plant will have a peak power of 31MWp and a nominal power of 27MW. The installation involves a 1.3km-long, 30kV transmission line. Top of Form Gestión News has reported that the project is intended to reduce the costs associated with the company’s cement production.

The cement company Yura (Gloria Group) intends to implement a photovoltaic solar plant in Arequipa, as part of the initiatives to increase efficiency in obtaining energy in its productive operations in said city. In this way, the company also seeks to achieve a cost reduction through this renewable energy source in the long term, thus confirming what is planned by Management.

In a Technical Sustainability Report (ITS) delivered to the Ministry of Production (Produce), the firm explained that said project (photovoltaic solar plant and medium voltage transmission line) would be executed in a desert area of the Yura district. The total surface area of the plant will be 43 hectares (ha), with a perimeter of 4,726 kilometers (km). Meanwhile, the 30 kilowatt (kV) transmission line will be extended 1.3 kilometers.

The photovoltaic plant will have a total peak power of 31.05 megawatts peak (MWp) and a nominal power of 26.95 MW. The Yura Photovoltaic Solar Power Plant will be composed of transformation centers, an electrical room, a 1.3 km long 30 kV transmission line to the Yura 0 substation.

“The transmission line aims to evacuate the energy generated to the existing Yura 0 electrical substation,” indicated the ITS.

As part of the auxiliary components, the company plans a storage area associated with the photovoltaic plant, the transmission line and the Yura electrical room and Yura 0 substation. In addition, a temporary administrative area and warehouse for surplus material is planned, mainly for the leftover material from excavations, waste storage and access (internal roads and other components).

The project will have a useful life of 30 years and would involve an investment of US$ 23,532,220.

Yura presented the aforementioned ITS before Produce, within the framework of the Citizen Participation regulations. In this way, the population will be able to provide their contributions on this proposal until April 3.

Last July, the vice president of Yura’s Cements, Concrete and Lime Division, Luis Díaz Olivero, declared to Management that the aforementioned photovoltaic plant would be 100% for self-consumption. Likewise, he revealed that they were evaluating other initiatives.

“At some point we are going to try to enter the green hydrogen industry, which complements cement. It would be a later project. In Ecuador we have a couple of water projects and in Bolivia we are doing the same. There is a natural relationship between investing in energy and the cement industry, more for self-consumption, to have efficient cost management and ensure energy supply,” he stated.