Dicalite is the world’s largest producer and provider of Milled Expanded Perlite used for filtration, fillers, construction and agricultural applications. For their production facility in the Ghent harbor, GreenPulse constructed and operates a 1,1 MWp PV solar installation.
Consuming solar energy in a different place than where it is produced
Dicalite’s production facility has little to no usable rooftop surface for the installation of solar panels. However, neighboring Dicalite Trading, a sister company on the same premises, has a very large rooftop covering the storage halls. At the other side, this part of the business has very little energy consumption. This meant that our green energy needed to be transported from the storage halls to the production facility and that can be more challenging than one could think.
Direct cable
In Flanders, when energy is transported from one company to another (and here there are two separate legal entities) a special permit for a “Direct Line” is to be obtained from the regulator VREG. Because of this we could no longer enjoy regular subsidies (at the time in the form of Green Energy Certificates) but needed to apply for a so-called Project Specific “Bandingfactor”, another complex and lengthy process. GreenPulse successfully applied for both procedures and now operates the PV plant since the summer of 2021. To complement the PV installation GreenPulse added charging stations for electric vehicles.
Ton CO2 saved
Auto consumption
Green energy
