The post Solar Microgrids Offer Pathway to Decarbonize Mining appeared first on POWER Magazine.

Mining is an energy-intensive industry; digging, crushing, and processing minerals takes a lot of power, and mines often operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Like other industries, mining companies are seeking solutions to reduce their emissions; both for the sake of the planet and in response to increasing pressure from customers to take a more environmentally friendly approach.

Increasingly, manufacturers that use minerals want to produce goods using more sustainable processes across their entire supply chains. While raw materials, such as rare earth metals, are essential to products such as consumer electronics and electric vehicles, manufacturers are looking to suppliers to reduce the overall carbon intensity of their operations.

Brazil has rich reserves of metals, producing and exporting about 80 mineral commodities, which help to make the country the sixth-largest mining industry in the world (Figure 1). However, mines are often located in remote, off-grid locations, giving mine operators limited options for decarbonization.…

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