Hindustan Zinc’s innovative solar plant wins CII’s ‘Best Application & Uses of Renewable Energy’ award
4 min read
- Rampura Agucha Mine’s 22 MW solar plant won at the 5th Edition CII National Energy Efficiency Circle Competition 2021
- The ‘Gold Standard’ solar plant contributed to 45,528 tCO2e carbon emission reduction in FY21
Udaipur, 21st June 2021: Exemplifying the company’s motto of ‘Innovating for a Sustainable Future’, Hindustan Zinc’s Rampura Agucha Mine has won the ‘Best Application & Uses of Renewable Energy (Large Project)’ award at the 5th Edition of CII National Energy Efficiency Circle Competition 2021. Agucha Mine’s unique waste to wealth initiative, a solar power plant developed on a waste yard, won this award. The innovative design involved setting up of the solar power plant on a waste dump yard, with a triple benefit of – making efficient use of the waste land, saving environmental footprint through a renewable energy source and annual GHG savings of over 45,000 tCO2e.
Commenting on the achievement, CEO of Hindustan Zinc, Mr. Arun Misra, said,“At Hindustan Zinc, we have empowered our people to think of innovative ideas that contribute towards a sustainable and greener tomorrow. Our solar power plant that is developed on a waste yard at Agucha is a green energy initiative that has contributed to a carbon emission reduction of 45,528 tCO2e in just one year. This is in line with our commitment to achieve the Sustainability Development Goal of 0.5MN tCO2e GHG savings by 2025. I am proud of my Agucha team for their efforts and this achievement.”
Faced 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, the team of Prafulkumar Patel, Vinoth Jaroli, Rajesh Chaudhary and Upendra Totamalla had to engineer something unique. 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 green energy in FY21, contributing to 40% of RAM’s energy requirement and leading to a GHG saving of 45,528 tCO2e.
Hindustan Zinc actively works on adopting renewable energy sources for captive use and has a portfolio of around 40 MW capacity solar projects across their locations in the state of Rajasthan. In FY21, the company reduced 5,51,695 MT of CO2 through use of green power while generating 83,420 Mwh of renewable solar energy. This green energy is part the company’s commitment to responsible mining and the larger purpose of running operations towards ‘zero harm, zero waste, zero discharge’ principle.
Furthermore, ranked first in the Asia- Pacific region and seventh globally in the metal and mining sector by the Dow Jones Sustainability Index, the company has made a name for itself in the global community. As a COP26 Business Leader, the company participated actively in shaping the agenda for tackling climate change. 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.
About Hindustan Zinc Limited
Hindustan Zinc, a Vedanta Group Company, is one of the world’s largest and India’s only integrated producer of Zinc-Lead and Silver. The Company has its Headquarter at Udaipur in the State of Rajasthan where it has its Zinc-Lead mines and smelting complexes. Hindustan Zinc is self-sufficient in power with captive thermal power plants and has ventured into green energy by setting up wind power plants. The Company is ranked 1st in Asia-Pacific and globally 7th in Dow Jones Sustainability Index in 2020 amongst Mining & Metal companies. Hindustan Zinc is a certified Water Positive Company, a member of the FTSE4Good Index and has scored ‘A’ rating by CDP for climate change.
Being a people-first company, Hindustan Zinc believes in inculcating the values of Trust and Excellence to have a culture of high-performance in its workforce. The company takes pride in having some of the best-in-class people practices and employee centric initiatives, which have certified Hindustan Zinc as – ‘Great Place to Work 2021’, ‘Company with Great Managers 2020’ by People Business and the PeopleFirst HR Excellence Award.
As a socially responsible corporate, Hindustan Zinc has been relentlessly working to improve the lives of rural and tribal people residing near its business locations. The company is amongst the Top 15 CSR Spenders in India and are currently reaching out to 500,000 people in 184 core villages of
Rajasthan and 5 in Uttarakhand. As a market leader, Hindustan Zinc governs about 77% of growing Zinc market in India.
Learn more about Hindustan Zinc on – https://www.hzlindia.com/home/ and follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram for more updates.
For further information please contact:
- Ms. Dipti Agrawal
Head – Corporate Communications
Hindustan Zinc Limited Dipti.agrawal@vedanta.co.in
