Page 19 - Infinity Power Report

Infinity Power 2023 Sustainability Report
Responsible water use
Solar and wind energy projects use relatively
little water compared to conventional electricity
generation. Yet, we recognise that water scarcity
is a major concern in the regions where most of
Infinity Power’s projects are located. These arid
areas often have poor quality water supplies
and limited accessibility, so sustainable water
management is a vital part of our operations.
Water use is higher at our solar sites, where
it’s needed to clean solar panels and ensure
equipment works efficiently. Solar panels are dry
cleaned each month, with wet cleaning rationed
to twice a year to conserve water. Our wind
projects use more water during construction, and
comparatively little during operations, primarily
for maintenance activities and workers’ facilities.
We manage water carefully and use reverse
osmosis to recycle water at some of our wind
projects. For instance, our Kangnas windfarm in
South Africa reuses around 132,000 litres of water
through reverse osmosis, which accounts for 20%
of its water use each year.
million litres of water use avoided
Enough to fill over 1,200 olympic sized swimming pools
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In 2023 we focused on collecting baseline water Managing waste
use data for our group operations so we can
Our assets produce relatively little waste during
better understand and reduce our ongoing water
operation, compared to the construction phase.
use across projects. Our operations avoided
For wind projects this includes some hazardous
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3,006 m of water compared with conventional
waste such as used solvents and lubricant oils
thermal energy sources in South Africa.
for turbine and other equipment maintenance,
and for solar sites it includes replacement solar
panels. We carefully monitor and manage all
OUR PERFORMANCE 2023
waste including hazardous waste to ensure it is
Million litres of water used/withdrawn 3.9
disposed of appropriately at all our sites. This year
we began to collect baseline data for hazardous
Litres of water used per MWh 0.95
of energy generated and non-hazardous waste from across all Infinity
On average, 1,400 litres of water are used per MWh
in South Africa’s electricity system, primarily through Power projects.
the cooling process for thermal power stations.
Million litres of water use avoided 3,006
This number only measures water use avoided
TOTAL WASTE IN 2023
from our electricity generation in South Africa,
as the average water consumption figures for
electricity in Egypt and Senegal are unavailable.
Hazardous waste:
43.40 tonnes
Non-hazardous waste:
40.57 tonnes
Total waste:
83.97 tonnes