Turnkey project for HUBER: the challenges in project management
The project is a turnkey project for HUBER: the Berching-based company acts as the appointed general contractor for the entire solar sewage sludge drying process and coordinates the local resources from faraway Berching to present a turnkey solution.
„Our team on the site consists of about 25 people. Besides the distance of more than 10,000 kilometres and the time difference, the Covid pandemic of course continues to present us with challenges,” says Marcin Stańczak. “We are installing state-of-the-art products and control elements and working with a new supplier to build the glasshouse. So far, thanks also to the excellent support of our Chilean subsidiary HUBER Latin America, we are mastering all challenges and the assembly work is progressing.”
Annual global radiation of over 2,000 kilowatt hours per square metre: Pachacútec offers excellent conditions for the use of solar energy
The Pachacútec site offers excellent conditions for HUBER’s innovative technology using solar energy: the annual global radiation here is over 2,000 kilowatt hours per square metre. According to the official definition of the German Weather Service, global radiation is the solar radiation received on the ground from a horizontal plane. For comparison: in Germany, the annual global radiation averages about 1,000 kWh/m² and is thus half as high as in Pachacútec. In sunny Spain, the radiation is a good 1,650 kWh/m² annually, and in Brazil and India, for example, the values are similar to those in Pachacútec.
Project consists of two parts: start in 2019 and important progress in 2020/2021
The project, which started in 2019, consists of two parts: firstly, the construction of the Pachacútec wastewater treatment plant itself, and secondly, the construction of the outfall for the discharge of the treated wastewater into the Pacific Ocean, for which a land outlet and an underwater outlet will be used.
In 2020, several advances were already made in the realisation of the project, for example the construction of the aeration basins, the sludge thickeners and the disinfection chamber. In 2021, work continued on the clarifiers and the sludge return pump chamber, as well as the earthworks for the solar drying technology, which is part of the sludge treatment system.
Acciona Agua, the water division of the construction company Acciona, is responsible for overall project: wastewater treatment plant part of a multi-phase expansion plan
The construction of the wastewater treatment plant is part of the third stage of the “Plan for the Expansion and Improvement of the Drinking Water and Sewer for the Pachacútec Macro Project” (Plan de Ampliación y Mejoramiento del Sistema de Agua Potable y Alcantarillado para el Macroproyecto Pachacútec). Responsible for the realization of the overall project is Acciona Agua, the water division of Acciona, a Spanish company active in building construction, civil engineering and infrastructure.