The western mining giant Vale announced that its Cerrado Cerrado solar park in Jaíba, Minas Gerais, Brazil, reached its maximum power generation capacity that day. The project uses photovoltaic modules and spare parts provided by Chinese enterprise JinkoSolar, which is a model of close cooperation between Vale and China in combating climate change.

On July 18, 2023, Vale received the approval from the Brazilian National Electric Power Bureau (ANEEL), and the last of the 17 photovoltaic power plants (sub parks) in the park has been approved for commercial operation.

We have been working hard to advance this project in the past few months, and everything has gone smoothly as planned. We have successfully connected 17 photovoltaic power plants in the park and expect to reach peak power generation next summer. Ludmila Nascimento, Director of Energy and Decarbonization of Vale, said that the Cerrado Sunshine is a comprehensive operation area combining local development and renewable energy, which helps us achieve our goal of becoming a leader in sustainable mining.

Cerrado Sunshine is one of the largest solar energy parks in Latin America, with an installed capacity of 766 MW peak (MWp), equivalent to the annual power consumption of a city with 800000 residents. After reaching the maximum power generation capacity, the electricity generated will account for 16% of the electricity consumed by Vale in Brazil.

The total investment of Cerrado Sunshine Solar Park reached about 590 million US dollars. The project also includes the construction of a 15 km, 230 kV transmission line to connect the hot sun in Cerrado and the substation in Jaíba, and to transmit power to the Brazilian national grid.

JinkoSolar said that Brazil is one of the overseas markets that the company focuses on. In the future, it will continue to strengthen cooperation with local Brazilian enterprises in the field of new energy applications, in order to promote the expansion of clean energy supply in Brazil and reduce energy costs.Editor/Ma Xue