While commodity prices have dropped significantly, unfortunately for many miners operating costs have not.
Although cost cutting measures, coupled with efficiency processes, have helped pull some control back into miners’ hands.
However, where they can’t cut back on costs is in keeping their mines running, particularly in remote areas.
New plug-and-play, low maintenance hybrid solar energy systems are helping miners keep their sites running while cutting reliance on less productive diesel generators.
The Conergy Hybrid Energy
Storage System (CHESS) system system is designed for installation and
operational convenience, being housed in an expandable 20ft container with
scalable power output starting from 100kW and continuing upward in increments
of 200 kWh or greater depending on energy requirements.
The fully expandable plug-and-play system is designed to seamlessly integrate solar energy into existing power supplies of minesites, production and accommodation facilities operating in remote off-grid or on-grid locations.
“CHESS is designed to deliver stable 24-hour, seven-day-a-week power supply for any remote or grid-connected location,” according to Conergy Australia managing director David McCallum.
The company added that it is able to reduce operators’ reliance on diesel fuel run generators by up to 70 per cent.
“Solar energy generation is now no longer limited to only providing energy while the sun shines. Our CHESS system is a proven reality, purpose-designed to function efficiently either independently or working in tandem with an existing power infrastructure, providing power even when the sun isn’t shining,” he said.
“CHESS provides a reliable, uninterrupted pow-er supply that will facilitate many companies’ transition from diesel to renewable solar energy.”
To date both Rio Tinto and Sandfire Resources have integrated solar power sources into their operations, at their Weipa and DeGrussa sites respectively.
CHESS itself features an integrated SCADA system providing central control and visibility to the system operator.
It also manages the switchover between island and grid parallel operation.
CHESS can integrate into existing micro-grids of facilities such as remote mining, energy, oil, gas, infrastructure and construction sites and environmentally sensitive areas where fossil fuel pollution and transportation/logistical costs are an issue.
Its capacity can be extended by connecting containers in parallel on the AC side from 50kW to 1MW. Additional battery containers are available to extend the storage to any required capacity.