ArcelorMittal Europe – Flat Products
ArcelorMittal Europe – Flat Products
The Kristal Solar Park has been designed to meet all the energy needs of the Nyrstar zinc-melting facility near the town of Lommel in the east of Belgium.
The Park is spread across ten different plots of land and will have a capacity of 100 megawatts (MW) when it comes onstream in the summer of 2019. The green nature of the project fits perfectly with the city of Lommel’s corporate slogan: ‘Pure Energy’.
Due to the vast number of solar panels required, voestalpine Sadef proposed their FASTSLIDE® system for the project. “If a conventional system was used, it would take eight people working for one year to install all the panels,” says Marc Depauw, head of voestalpine Sadef’s engineering office who led the initial design of the solar park. “FASTSLIDE® reduces that time by 80 percent.”
The Magnelis® frames are guaranteed against corrosion for 25 years
The proximity of the zinc melting plant means the atmosphere nearby has high levels of sulphur dioxide (SO2). For this reason, ArcelorMittal recommended Magnelis® ZM430 for the project. ZM430 has a 35 µm thick coating of Magnelis® on both sides of the steel. This is the thickest Magnelis® coating currently available.
“Compared to post-galvanisation, a key benefit of Magnelis® is that it doesn’t need coating after forming,” explains Henk Poleyn, commercial manager for voestalpine Sadef. “This saves time and a costly galvanising step, making Magnelis® very interesting in this project.
One of the main reasons voestalpine Sadef chose Magnelis® from ArcelorMittal was the quick delivery time required. “There was a very short period between ordering the material for the frames, and the start of their on-field installation,” says Tom Van De Putte, account manager for voestalpine Sadef at ArcelorMittal Belgium. “Other factors influencing our decision to choose Magnelis® included the quality of the product, the long guarantee ArcelorMittal was able to offer, and our ability to deliver a large volume in a short time.”