Solar energy solution hits the high notes at Mining Indaba

Solar energy solution hits the high notes at Mining Indaba

By Jack Ward

Two of the mining industry’s current buzzwords, according to a prominent South African journalist, are ‘sustainable development’. This was endorsed by Anglo Gold Ashanti CEO Mark Cutifani at the recent Mining Indaba conference in Cape Town.

Here, in his presentation, he emphasised that mining companies need to generate clean energy - in addition to securing access to water, ensuring food security and engaging in municipal planning for sanitation and health among other important ‘sustainable development’ objectives.

It’s a call to action that we at Powermode fully support. In fact we took the time to partner with one of our suppliers, Canadian Solar, and man a small exhibition stand at the Mining Indaba in a bid to get the word out.

Our objective was to spread the message that solarphotovoltaic (PV) power is geared towards the sustainable development of the energy supply in South Africa.

Was there any interest in our presentation from the mining community? Indeed. We were almost overwhelmed by the level of attention gained by our solar PV solutions from the many delegates to the conference who took the opportunity to come and chat with us.

Many of them were surprised to see an exhibit focussed entirely on renewable energy, but soon become engrossed as we explained the extraordinary value proposition of Solar PV for the mining industry.

The key application we addressed was the solar PV / diesel hybrid solution. 

The use of diesel generators to provide base-load power in off/near grid mining locations is widespread and, as an upshot of the escalating price of diesel, is a major cost factor in mining today.

The solution we showcased at the Mining Indaba comes from our partners SMA and Canadian Solar. It has the ability to significantly reduce the running time of large diesel power generators, therefore bringing huge decreases in running costs – as well as effectively reducing carbon emissions.

Visitors to our stand were impressed when we were able to demonstrate that the break-even cost of a total solution is well under 36 months.

From our perspective, it was surprising to discover just how much money mining companies – and other industries - spend on diesel power generation. We understand that countries north of our border are even more reliant on this high-cost power source.

So, as we learned, any solution that has a fast payback, is quick and easy to implement and has the benefit of low running costs over a 25 to 40-year lifespan is music to the mining companies’ ears. Our cost saving solution for sustainable solar energy certainly hit the high notes at the Indaba.