Power systems in mining and other industries are seeing a major structural transformation as renewables and energy storage costs continue to decline and global pressure to mitigate CO2 remains strong. For off-grid mining in particular, renewable and storage technologies present an ideal opportunity not only to improve the mine’s environmental footprint, but also to reduce energy costs while improving power quality.

To test the viability of storage plus renewables for brownfield mining sites, we considered four scenarios that are optimized using HOMER Pro microgrid modeling software, the global standard for rapid assessment of least cost solutions for clean, reliable, distributed power and microgrids.

The scenarios compared the following benefits:

• Fuel saving and associated reduction in CO2 emissions & maintenance costs
• Reduced levelized cost of electricity with an attractive internal rate of return on investments
• Improved power quality and reliability