Wärtsilä Energy has been contracted by a leading gold mining company in South American country Suriname for the supply of an integrated 7.8-megawatt (MW) / 7.8-megawatt hour (MWh), utility-scale energy storage system. Expected to be operational by late 2022, the system will cut fuel consumption at the gold mine by reducing the reliance on an emergency Read More
Singapore-headquartered Trafigura Group, an international commodity company that trades in metals and energy, has joined hands with IFM Investors, a Swiss fund manager, to form Nala Renewables. (FT) The move marks a huge shift in business focus for Trafigura. One of the world’s biggest independent oil traders, the company is looking to buy or build 2 Read More
Photo by Sirbatch - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikipedia. A maze of abandoned gold mines beneath the city of Bendigo is about to power Victoria’s modern economy. The Victorian government is backing a plan to convert the Central Deborah Gold Mine into a pumped hydro site. The project will use surplus solar power to Read More
Off-grid mines can slash fuel requirements and CO2 emissions by up to 28% by using microgrids that combine solar power, battery storage, and diesel generators, according to a new study. The ABB report, Reducing Energy Costs and Environmental Impacts of Off-Grid Mines, outlines how microgrids can help miners generate a reliable power supply and trim emissions Read More
Atacama Desert, Chile. Photo credit: ogwen [CC BY 2.0]. The world’s first 24/7 emissions-free "plug-and-play" commercial microgrid is now operational, according to a news release from Enel Green Power Chile. The system integrates 125kWp (kilowatt-peak) of solar power generation with 580 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of lithium-ion battery storage (132-kWh) and hydrogen energy storage (450-kWh) to supply part Read More
(Photo Credit: Ivan Alvarado, Reuters; Caption: Atacama salt flat - Rockwood lithium plant) Sonny Banjac, a Vancouver based renewable energy and clean-tech consultant, has recently posted an excellent series of three articles on the role of Lithium in the development of energy choices. The articles cover the likely demand for Lithium over the next couple of decades Read More
Steve Burke and Jim Besha of Albany Engineering Corp. stand at the site of an abandoned iron mine in the Adirondacks, in Mineville, NY. Credit: CBS News. A long-defunct iron mine in Mineville, NY may be the key to storing the area’s solar and wind energy. Renewable energy producers need ways to ensure an uninterrupted flow Read More
Storage solutions are dramatically changing the resource sector’s energy landscape by allowing solar and wind to provide 24/7 energy supply to remote mines. Glencore’s Raglan mine Currently, mines are implementing storage technologies either in combination with renewables to solve intermittency issues or with diesel generators to save on fuel costs. Off-grid mines, which usually have at Read More
Arcon-Sunmark, Denmark’s large-scale solar heating specialist, has completed a new 5.1 MW (peak) solar heating plant at the Peñoles’ La Parreña copper mine in Mexico. The plant has a collector field of 6.270 m2 with a total of 456 collectors. It also has a 660 m3 storage tank for storing surplus heat. The new project will Read More
Pele Mountain Resources, headquartered in Toronto, Canada, is expanding its business model to include electricity generation and energy storage, citing a prolonged downturn in the rare earth and uranium markets. The company announced that the City of Elliot Lake, located in Ontario, has agreed to enter into a sustainable energy development agreement with Pele Mountain Resources. Read More
