{"id":19580,"date":"2020-03-19T09:57:44","date_gmt":"2020-03-19T07:57:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.victronenergy.com\/blog\/?p=19580"},"modified":"2021-04-19T14:57:56","modified_gmt":"2021-04-19T12:57:56","slug":"large-scale-fish-farm-catches-the-sun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.victronenergy.com\/blog\/2020\/03\/19\/large-scale-fish-farm-catches-the-sun\/","title":{"rendered":"Large-scale Fish Farm catches the Sun"},"content":{"rendered":"

A farm in Mali, West Africa, is stretching the boundaries of what’s possible. In a landlocked country well-known for producing Cotton, Rice Millet and Corn, the Complex Agro Industrial de Baragnouma<\/em>\u00a0produce fish – at a rate of 5 tons a day.<\/p>\n

In order to maintain conditions in which the fish can thrive water has to be continually filtered and oxygenated. Water treatment takes a lot of power – at the\u00a0Baragnouma\u00a0<\/em>complex\u00a0that power is provided by solar energy.<\/p>\n

It seems fatuous to say that the reliability of their remote power plant is paramount …but if the power were to fail for just 30 minutes, the fish would die.<\/p>\n

It was decided at the outset, in 2014, that the farm would incorporate solar energy power provision to the greatest possible extent – though few could have foreseen the scale of its success. Ninety-eight per cent of the power requirement is met by solar energy, back-up generators providing the other two percent.<\/p>\n

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In fact there are seven off grid solar-powered electrical installations at the Complex Agro Industrial de Baragnouma which provide inexpensive sustainable energy not only for their pisciculture\u00a0but also for: Chicken, Dairy, Fruit and Vegetables; a factory which produces animal feed; workers houses; and two small offices.<\/p>\n

Fortunately sunshine is very dependable in Djoliba which is 40km from Mali’s capital, Bamako. Their investment over 6 years has exceeded a million dollars – yet these investments are lower than the cost of the diesel which would otherwise have been used. And the solar installations save more than 400 tons of CO2 emissions annually.<\/p>\n

The carefully orchestrated infrastructure includes a\u00a0Fish nursery for 20,000 Alvins per cycle of production, which are reared in 8 ponds. There are a further\u00a014 ponds each of 1000m\u00b2 for the specie Clariidae. Thirteen much larger ponds provide the habitat for rearing Tilapia. There is a recycled water requirement of 14,570 cubic metres per day with pumps working at up to 180 cubic metres per day; and top-up pumped from boreholes.<\/p>\n

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The seven Off-Grid Systems have a total capacity of 520kW. \u00a0Generating a similar amount of energy using diesel would cost around $260,000 a year …add to that the cost of maintenance, transport for fuel, and depreciation of the generators and it’s easy to see how the cost savings, and power security make the solar option so desirable. And the farm operates silently – which is a bonus for the 100 or so employees who are all fully engaged with the project.<\/p>\n

The installation was carried out by Sonikara Solar Electro<\/a>\u00a0– overseen by company CEO and Founder Mouctar Doucoure.\u00a0<\/em>Working with the support of Victron staff, it is a ringing endorsement of the technological ability of Sonikara that they have been awarded the maintenance contract to oversee this huge installation for the next five years – monitoring and maintaining the system so that it runs without missing a beat.<\/p>\n

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Anco van Bergeijk (support engineer for Victron in Africa) Mouctar Doucoure (CEO and founder of Sonikara Solar)<\/p><\/div>\n

The Biggest standalone Victron installation provides 3-phase power to the fish and chicken food factory – which can be seen in the video below. It employs:<\/p>\n