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“The need for a collaborative effort is particularly evident within carbon-intensive industries like mining, where the challenges are great but the opportunities are even greater. To overcome these challenges and unlock these opportunities, Shell is helping to bring together some of the sector’s most innovative companies – with electrification proving an important first step towards the shaping of a clear decarbonization pathway.”
Grischa Sauerberg,
Vice President, Sectoral Decarbonisation & Innovation,
Shell.
Today, Shell announced the establishment of its nine-member consortium to create a new pilot offering of electrification solutions for mining sites. Skeleton, Microvast, Stäubli, Carnegie Robotics, Heliox, Spirae, Alliance Automation, Worley, and Shell have come together to introduce Shell’s Mining Electrification Solutions for Off-Road Vehicles – an end-to-end and interoperable electrification system that reduces emissions without compromising on efficiency or safety, while aiming to have cost competitive versus diesel-powered operations. The pilot offering combines an innovative, high-powered battery solution with ultrafast charging and a standardized micro-grid energy system where the required solution can be complemented with renewable electricity generation on-site or through the grid.
As an alternative energy source, electrification offers off-road industries the immediate potential to shift away from a long-standing reliance on diesel. For hard-to-abate sectors like mining, this is critical, since mobile equipment comprises between 40 and 50 percent of mining’s CO2 emissions.[1] By 2030, it is estimated that a battery-electric haulage truck will: lower total cost of ownership (TCO); involve 20 percent lower maintenance costs, and incur 40 percent lower fuel costs than existing diesel trucks.1
“It is increasingly clear that no one, a single organization can solve decarbonization alone,” said Grischa Sauerberg, Vice President, of Sectoral Decarbonisation & Innovation at Shell. “The need for a collaborative effort is particularly evident within carbon-intensive industries like mining, where the challenges are great but the opportunities are even greater. To overcome these challenges and unlock these opportunities, Shell is helping to bring together some of the sector’s most innovative companies – with electrification proving an important first step towards the shaping of a clear decarbonization pathway.”
Shell’s Mining Electrification Solutions for Off-Road Vehicles consist of:
- Power provisioning and microgrids: aim to provide a consistent and reliable supply of renewable power in a safe and stable manner
- Ultra-fast charging: taking approximately 90 seconds via flexible, hardwearing, and resilient, on-site, ultrafast charge-points, which provide assets with continuous operations in the most challenging of environments
- In-vehicle energy storage: through a combination of advanced battery and capacitor technologies that aim to deliver long lifetimes, ultra-fast charging, and high performance
As a result, mining operators are set to benefit from an integrated electrification solution that:
- Is end-to-end, covering the full journey of the electron from generation to delivery in the drive train
- Is interoperable between different Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) makes and models, giving mining operators greater flexibility
- Is modular in design to allow mining customers the opportunity to tailor solutions to their specific needs
- Reduces emissions without compromising on operational efficiency or safety
“The challenge of decarbonization is immense, but not impossible – providing collaboration and innovation go hand in hand at all times,” said Sauerberg. “Both of these were on show during the recent Charge On Innovation Challenge, which saw the Shell-led consortium of equipment manufacturers, technology partners, industry experts, and Shell Energy – our in-house supplier of renewable power – push the boundaries of what is possible for hard-to-abate sectors like mining. Our winning solutions are proof of how, together, the industry can help power progress by realizing the full potential of the technologies available to us – whether that is through electrification, digital tools, or low-carbon fuels.”
To help transform industries, Shell has created the Shell Sectors & Decarbonisation (S&D) business. This is comprised of teams with specific sectoral experience who support companies that operate in hard-to-abate sectors to avoid, reduce and mitigate their emissions. Shell S&D provides these customers with the products and solutions required today while working together to meet their fast-evolving needs.
Shell Mining is working across the entire mining value chain – from hauling to processing and beyond – to identify and develop decarbonization strategies, pathways, and solutions that help unlock efficient operations and sustainable practices. Shell’s sectoral approach allows the mining team to apply its deep industry knowledge and expertise while working closely with customers to develop highly tailored solutions. In doing so, Shell Mining sees collaboration as a critical part of innovation and a crucial lever for emissions reduction across the sector.
BHP, Rio Tinto and Vale, are the founding patrons of an exciting collaboration, the Charge On Innovation Challenge. Facilitated by Austmine, this was a global initiative for technology innovators to develop concepts for large-scale, haul truck electrification systems to help the mining sector reduce its consumption of diesel fuel and significantly cut emissions from open-pit mines. The challenge was born out of the industry requiring a safe solution that could be applied across the many and varied mines, mine infrastructure, and truck manufacturers.
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