A floating photovoltaic farm will be built on the mirror of the water tank water in the Sośnica mine

On the mirror of the water of one of the retention reservoirs of the Gliwice Sośnica mine, a floating solar farm with an energy storage is to be created in the EU research project – said on Monday Polska Grupa Górnicza said, to which the plant belongs.

According to PGG information, the pilot farm is to build a consortium managed by the Gliwice Institute of Mining Technology Komag, and in which the Main Mining Institute – PIB, Silesian University of Technology and Companies also participate: SWE (light pontoons and composite structures for PV panels), Novum Servis (anchoring) and KTKM (warehouse and energy shipment).

The project called Posten has obtained the acceptance of the European Commission this year and is to be co -financed by the amount of EUR 6.8 million as part of the Coal and Steel Research Fund. Therefore, in July this year. The consortium asked the Sośnica mine to lease to at least the middle of 2029 a part of one of the retention settlers.

The bottom water reservoir in the west field of the Sośnica mine has over 3 ha of surface – the designed installation is to occupy no more than half. In the pilot phase, the produced electricity is to go to the electrical switchgear of a nearby coal mechanical processing plant and cover about 15 percent. his demand.

The consortium partners point out that the operation of the floating installation will facilitate the lack of waving of the water surface in a mine settler. It is also known that The cells placed on the water surface that reflects the sun's rays work more effectively than on a solid ground. The water from the settler is also to cool the system.

As Wojciech Mikulski, a mine energy engineer, quoted by PGG, said, to whom the contractors transferred the details of the project, the problem is the salinity of the water in the settler. This is why The floating structure will be made not of metal, but from composite materialsand panels with PV cells will be attached not to metal buckles or screws, but with glue.

Floating farm modules will be equipped with so -called Trackers, tracking the sun movement and standing at the optimal angle of the PV cells. Energy from a 2 MWh modular warehouse will be removed by an 800-meter 100-meter SWET transmission line (single-wire, high-frequency and high voltage, which minimizes losses in transmission).

The project provides that floating gym modules can be transferred to other tanks or land, where energy obtained from the farm could serve, for example, reclamation work.

The full -scale installation on the Sośnica settler is to be built by the beginning of 2027 until the end of 2025. In the GIG experimental mine Barbara in Mikołów, a minifarma with a small 155 kW minifarma will be built, consisting of 25 floating sections; The target is to have 330 swimmers with 10 panels on each of them. Also in Mikołów, the prototype of the SWET transmission line is to be made and examined by mid -2026.

The European Executive Agency for Scientific Research is managed by the Coal and Steel Research Fund (RFCS). (PAP)

MTB/ PAD/