Solutions · Off-Grid & Hybrid · Mining

Mining & Remote Industrial Storage

Battery storage for mining camps, processing plants, and remote industrial sites. Diesel-displacement hybrids, spinning-reserve relief, ESG-aligned dispatch — sized to the load profile.

Mining & remote industrial BESS

Mining and remote industrial sites run on diesel because grid extension is uneconomic and reliability requirements dominate. Battery storage paired with on-site PV displaces 50–70% of diesel runtime in typical mid-latitude installations, cuts fuel haulage, and provides spinning-reserve relief during peak shifts. Henley Power supplies the storage layer in 2 MWh and 5 MWh utility containers, sized to camp or processing-load demand. The Sahel-region Chad PV-storage-diesel project is the closest active reference; larger mining-specific deployments are in development.

01 — THE MINING & INDUSTRIAL CASE

Why mining and remote industrial sites add storage

Off-grid mining sites and remote industrial loads run on diesel by default. Grid extension to a copper concentrator in the Atacama or a gold mine in the West African belt rarely pencils out, so the genset farm becomes the primary supply. Fuel logistics, ESG covenants on debt facilities, and equipment-uptime cost have all shifted toward storage in 2026.

Diesel haulage is the structural cost. A 5 MW mining camp with 24-hour processing burns roughly 4 million litres of diesel a year at typical load factors. Trucking that fuel through 200 km of unsealed road adds logistics overhead that rivals the fuel procurement cost on remote African and Andean projects. PV-plus-storage cuts genset runtime by half to two-thirds — proportionally fewer fuel trucks, lower logistics overhead.

Spinning reserve is the second cost layer. Mining loads have hard motor starts: ball mills, crushers, conveyor belt drives. The genset fleet carries spinning reserve to absorb those step loads — running at 30–50% capacity when no real load is present. Battery storage with grid-forming PCS covers the same spinning-reserve function without burning fuel.

ESG financing has become the third pressure point. Senior debt facilities increasingly carry decarbonisation covenants. Under Equator Principles EP4 (2020), projects emitting above 100,000 tonnes CO2/year must complete a GHG alternatives analysis before financial close. A solar-plus-storage layer makes the covenant deliverable.

02 — WHAT THE BATTERY DOES

Four jobs the storage layer covers

Diesel runtime displacement

Direct fuel-cost reduction. PV plus storage covers daytime processing load and base-load nights. Genset runtime drops 50–70% on mid-latitude installations, with proportional savings on fuel haulage and engine wear.

Spinning-reserve relief

Battery covers motor-start step loads — ball mills, crushers, conveyor drives — without keeping a genset spun up at low capacity factor for reserve duty. Removes the fuel cost of spinning reserve.

ESG & financing alignment

Decarbonisation and emissions-reduction covenants on mining-project debt facilities increasingly drive renewable-integration targets in loan agreements. The PV-plus-storage layer is what makes these covenants deliverable under Equator Principles GHG alternatives analysis.

Modular expansion

Mining loads grow as new pits open and processing capacity ramps. Containerized 2 MWh and 5 MWh blocks add capacity in parallel without redesigning the system. Same PCS topology, same controller, same maintenance protocol.

03 — INTEGRATION ARCHITECTURE

Three ways to wire it

Mining and remote industrial sites split across three architecture patterns, driven by available solar resource, the duty cycle of the processing load, and whether the project keeps a diesel genset farm in the loop. The platform constants hold across all modes: Tier-1 LFP cells from publicly listed manufacturers, multi-supplier homologated, and grid-forming PCS as standard across all utility BESS containers, with IEC 61850-7-420 DER profile support.

Mode A

PV + BESS + diesel hybrid

The default for new mines above 5 MW load. PV array sized for 50–70% of daytime processing demand, BESS sized for evening peak plus night base, diesel genset fleet retained for deep-backup and motor-start support. Solar-first dispatch, battery-second, genset-last.

Default

Mode B

BESS + diesel (storage-augmented)

Used where PV space is limited or shading restricts a useful array — underground mining hubs, deep canyon sites, sites with cyclone-zone exposure that prevents permanent PV. Battery covers motor starts, runs base load through quiet shifts, and reduces fuel burn 25–40% without any solar element.

Mode C

Grid-connected peak shaving

For mines connected to a national grid via long MV feeders — Atacama copper, Andean lithium, some West African gold operations. BESS handles peak demand charges and stabilises voltage on long feeders, without participating in the genset dispatch logic. Different commercial structure, same hardware platform.

04 — SIZING LOGIC

How to size a mining BESS

Off-grid mining sizing runs three levers: load profile first, peak demand second, autonomy hours third.

Lever 01 — Energy

24h base load (kWh/day)

Drives MWh nameplate. Mining loads are 24-hour processing, not residential — the day-night ratio is closer to 1.0 than 0.6. Back-test against twelve months of metered SCADA data if available.

Lever 02 — Power

Peak processing load + motor starts (MW)

Drives PCS power rating. Ball mills, crushers, and conveyor drives hit the bus with 2–3× steady-state. PCS oversizing factor follows the worst-case motor-start curve.

Lever 03 — Duration

Autonomy hours during genset maintenance

Drives MWh-to-MW ratio. Mine genset maintenance windows run 4–12 hours; battery sized to cover the window plus a safety margin for unscheduled outages.

Rule of thumb

Mining camp 1–5 MW (residential plus auxiliary): typically 2–10 MWh BESS, often a single 2 MWh utility container or a paired 2 MWh + 5 MWh stack for longer autonomy. Processing plant 5–20 MW: 10–40 MWh, multi-container 5 MWh deployment with redundant PCS. Major mine 20–100 MW: 40–200 MWh, multi-substation distributed architecture. Starting points only — detailed sizing adds load duty cycle, PV resource, and genset fleet composition.

Got a mining or remote industrial project on your desk? We'll run the diesel-displacement and motor-start numbers with you.

05 — RECOMMENDED HENLEY PLATFORM

Two containerized blocks

The utility BESS platform ships to solar-plus-storage, mining hybrids, and standalone grid-scale projects. Selection between the 2 MWh and 5 MWh containers comes down to camp or processing-load size, autonomy hours required, and how the genset fleet is being phased out.

UTILITY

HLY-BESS-Utility-2MWh

Utility-Scale BESS — 2 MWh Containerised.

2 MWh

2,232 kWh liquid-cooled LFP in a 20-ft ISO container — IPP solar farms, wind balancing, utility substations.

View product

UTILITY

HLY-BESS-Utility-3MWh · 4MWh · 5MWh

Utility-Scale BESS — 3 to 5 MWh Liquid-Cooled Container.

3–5 MWh

3,344 / 4,180 / 5,015 kWh liquid-cooled LFP in 20-ft ISO containers — grid-scale storage, frequency response, BESS-as-a-service.

View product

06 — REFERENCE PROJECTS

Honest about where we are

Note from engineering

Henley Power’s deployed portfolio includes a Sahel-region PV-storage-diesel microgrid in Chad — engineering-equivalent to a small mining-camp deployment, with the same diesel-displacement and motor-start logic. Larger commissioned mining-specific references are in development. Chinese provincial deployments are utility solar-plus-storage and grid-scale projects.

The mining and remote industrial use case shares its hardware envelope with PV-storage-diesel hybrids: 2 MWh and 5 MWh containerized blocks, grid-forming PCS as standard, ruggedized for high ambient temperature and dust ingress. The differences are in dispatch logic and motor-start tuning, not in the container or the cell stack. Pre-commissioning mining feasibility studies and the Chad project technical pack are shared after NDA on request.

If your project needs a fully mining-deployed reference site as a pre-condition to specification, we’ll say so openly rather than over-promise. DFI documentation, IEC test reports, and mining feasibility studies shared pre-bid under NDA. Browse current project portfolio →

07 — FAQ

Common questions

How much diesel does a typical PV-plus-BESS hybrid actually displace?

50–70% of diesel runtime hours in mid-latitude installations with adequate solar resource is the band we work to, with field and modelled outcomes reported in industry literature broadly aligning. The band tightens once you factor in the specific load duty cycle, PV array size, and battery autonomy hours. Underground or shaded sites without solar drop to 25–40% via storage-only motor-start relief and quiet-shift base coverage.

Can the BESS be islanded from the grid, or does it need a grid reference?

Yes. The platform runs grid-forming PCS as standard, which means the BESS itself sets the voltage and frequency reference. The site can run fully islanded with PV plus battery, with the diesel genset fleet idle. When the genset comes online for deep backup or extended autonomy, the BESS phase-locks to it. No external grid reference is required at any point in the dispatch sequence.

Is the warranty insurance-backed for this kind of project?

Warranty insurance via licensed European insurer is available as a project option for DFI-financed and institutionally-backed tenders. Parent guarantee or escrow alternative on request.

How does the platform handle dust, high ambient temperature, and corrosive environments?

Containers ship with HVAC sized for the project’s design ambient envelope, IP54 minimum on enclosure penetrations, and filtered intake on the cooling system. For coastal or sulphide-mine corrosion exposure, marine-grade external coating and inspection-port sealing are specified. High-altitude installations get derated PCS curves and HVAC adjustments at engineering. Standard reference envelope is −20 °C to +50 °C ambient; project-specific extensions confirmed before contract.

What happens when the mine expands or processing capacity ramps?

The 2 MWh and 5 MWh containerized blocks are parallel-stackable. Adding capacity is dropping additional containers next to the existing array and connecting them to the same MV bus. Same PCS topology, same controller architecture, same maintenance protocol. Greenfield deployments are typically sized 20–30% above the current load profile to absorb a 2–3 year expansion plan, with discrete container additions beyond that.

08 — RELATED SOLUTIONS