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Africa & Middle East / Industrial & mining

Nouadhibou Iron Ore Mine Microgrid

Current status, energy mix, organizations, suppliers, equipment, controls, reported specifications, and project updates—with source-level citations.

CoverageDetailed public record
Named organizations3
System facts21
Sources reviewed10
Evidence reviewed2026-07-20

The archived name is geographically misleading: SNIM's iron-ore mines are inland around Zouerate and F'derick, while this 4.4 MW wind/16 MW diesel hybrid serves SNIM's coastal port, processing, industrial and community electricity system at Nouadhibou/Cansado. Sixteen 275 kW Vergnet GEV MP-C turbines operate on the 5.5 kV diesel grid under Vergnet's Hybrid Wizard control strategy. SNIM's 2024 report still counts the wind plant in service, and a 2024 repair/training mission provides recent maintenance evidence.

Research status
Operational with documented 2024 maintenance. SNIM's 2024 annual report lists 4.4 MW of wind at Nouadhibou within its 19.4 MW clean-generation portfolio, alongside the 16 MW Nouadhibou thermal plant. Vergnet completed a repair and technician-training mission in July 2024. A recent African Development Bank account says wind supplies nearly 30% of the plant's electricity needs; no site-specific annual MWh, availability, curtailment or diesel-savings series was published, so the exact current renewable fraction and performance cannot be independently audited.
Historical classification
Industrial
Reported capacity
See component specifications
Coordinates
20.94252, -17.03623
Evidence note: “Every company” cannot be proven from public material alone. This page lists every organization found in the recovered record and reviewed sources, preserves unknown roles, and explicitly marks undisclosed controller or equipment details.
Report missing evidenceResearch methodology

Project delivery

Who was involved in Nouadhibou Iron Ore Mine Microgrid?

3 publicly identified organizations. Where a recovered source named a participant without explaining its work, the role remains explicitly unspecified.

Organization

African Development Bank

Longstanding financier of SNIM modernization and source of a recent portfolio-level assessment of the wind plant's contribution. [9]

Organization

Société Nationale Industrielle et Minière (SNIM)

Owner/operator of the integrated iron-ore mining, railway, port and power system and client for the wind-diesel installation. [4][5][6]

Organization

Vergnet

Wind-turbine and Hybrid Wizard supplier/integrator; performed the 2024 repair and maintenance-training mission. [6][8][7]

System evidence

Energy mix, capacity, and specifications

Values can describe different project phases, generation sources, storage systems, or other components. Source citations are attached to each figure so discrepancies remain visible.

KW Wind
4400 [1]
KW Gas/Diesel
16000 [1]
Wind plant
4.4 MW: sixteen 275 kW turbines. Vergnet's 2024 repair announcement rounds the plant to 4.5 MW; SNIM's annual report and the exact unit arithmetic support 4.4 MW as the canonical rating. [4][6][8]
Thermal plant and grid
16 MW from four diesel generator sets feeding a 5.5 kV isolated industrial grid [4][6]
Wind resource
8.78 m/s mean wind speed at the 55 m turbine hub height in the project study [6]
Reported current contribution
African Development Bank reports the Nouadhibou wind plant supplies nearly 30% of plant electricity needs; the account does not publish the measurement period, denominator or annual MWh. [9]
SNIM-wide context, not site production
SNIM reported 19.4 MW total clean capacity in 2024 (15 MW solar at Zouerate plus 4.4 MW wind at Nouadhibou) and 415,823 MWh total company-system generation, including 343,226 MWh for industrial facilities and 62,113 MWh for communities. Those MWh figures combine multiple power plants and cannot be assigned to the Nouadhibou hybrid alone. [4]

Controls and hardware

Equipment and controller details

Manufacturer and model are shown only when a source names them. Generic descriptions are not converted into guessed product assignments.

01

Wind turbines

Vergnet — GEV MP-C

Sixteen 275 kW, two-bladed turbines with 32 m rotor diameter and 55 m hub height. The design was selected for a warm, dry, near-shore and highly corrosive environment and supports lowering/servicing suited to remote sites. [6][8]

02

Diesel generation

Model not publicly disclosed

Four generator sets totaling 16 MW provide dispatchable generation and grid-forming support. Reviewed public sources do not identify engine/alternator manufacturers, models, individual ratings or fuel-efficiency curves. [6][4]

03

Hybrid controller

Vergnet — Hybrid Wizard

Supervisory control measures load and generation, limits wind to preserve diesel minimum loading/spinning reserve and manages connections and shortfall response. Public material does not identify the installed software version or current hardware platform. [6][7]

Technical record

Architecture, performance, and project updates

Concise technical facts, milestones, operating results, and later developments. Dated notes distinguish historical design claims from current evidence.

  • General

    Wind Turbine: 16 Vergnet GEV MP-C, 275kW, 32m rotor diameter, 55m hub height [1]

  • General

    Total power: 4.4 MW [1]

  • General

    Vergnet GEV MP Wind Turbines Deliver Energy and Cost Savings for SNIM Iron Mine [1]

  • General

    The facility is powered by a 16 MW diesel plant equipped with 4 diesel gensets, feeding a 5.5 kV grid. [1]

  • General

    Specific wind turbine technology was also required to address the near-shore location, very dry and warm climate, and highly corrosive environment. [1]

  • General

    A Hybrid Approach – Investing in Wind Energy and Vergnet’s Hybrid Wizard® Solution [1]

  • Commissioning chronology

    Sources variously cite 2012 construction/start and 2013 commissioning. The project was operational by 2013; the one-year wording difference should be retained rather than forced into a single unsupported date. [6][8]

  • Hybrid operation

    The control study modeled wind profile, load cycles and diesel characteristics to maximize renewable penetration while maintaining frequency/voltage, generator reserve and minimum diesel loading. No battery storage is documented in the operating architecture. [6][7]

  • 2024 maintenance update

    Vergnet reported completing repair work and training a five-to-six-person SNIM technical team in operation and maintenance in July 2024. The announcement does not disclose how many turbines were unavailable, downtime duration, replacement parts or post-repair availability. [8]

  • Asset boundary

    SNIM mines ore inland and transports it by rail to the Nouadhibou coast. The wind-diesel plant is therefore better classified as a port/industrial microgrid within an integrated mining system, not an onsite iron-ore mine microgrid. [5][4]

  • Open evidence gaps

    No site-specific annual wind MWh, capacity factor, curtailment, diesel litres, generator heat rate, turbine availability, outages, repair scope or measured emissions savings through July 2026 was located. [4][9][8]

Provenance

10 sources

Primary owner, government, university, supplier, and engineering sources are preferred. Archived references preserve claims whose original pages moved or disappeared.

  1. [1]
    Recovered Microgrid Projects record

    Internet Archive · Archived source · captured 2020-07-06

  2. [2]
    From Vernet

    vergnet.com · Archived source · captured 2020-07-06

  3. [3]
    Vergnet

    vergnet.com · Archived source · captured 2020-07-06

  4. [4]
    SNIM Annual Report 2024

    SNIM · Primary source

  5. [5]
    Who We Are

    SNIM · Primary source

  6. [6]
    Wind-Diesel Hybrid System at SNIM's Nouadhibou Site

    International Hybrid Power Systems Workshop / Vergnet · Primary source

  7. [7]
  8. [8]
  9. [9]
    Mauritania: SNIM, a flagship of growth, steps up its expansion

    African Development Bank · Secondary research

  10. [10]
    Archived Nouadhibou Iron Ore Mine Microgrid record

    MicrogridProjects.com via Internet Archive · Archived source

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