A mining perspective on the potential of renewable electricity sources for operations in South Africa : Part 2 – A multi-criteria decision assessment
Date
2017
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
The Southern African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy
Abstract
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The first in this series of two papers, on the potential of renewable electricity
sources for mining operations in South Africa, investigated the internal
structure of mining corporations to evaluate feasible alternative electricity
sources that were identified as through earlier research. The purpose of this
paper is to combine current knowledge about the external macroeconomic
and the internal environments to produce a clear picture of how renewable
sources of electricity could perform from the perspective of mining
corporations in South Africa. The multi-attribute value theory (MAVT)
approach was adapted to structure the research and results. The model was
fed with real-time data provided from five different energy companies and
four mining corporations operating in South Africa. The results show that the
performance of hybrid versions of the currently used electricity sources
(diesel generators and Eskom grid connection) with solar PV and onshore
wind is favourable compared with the current sources alone. The advantage
of diesel generators is significantly greater than that of the Eskom grid
connection. By combining the macroeconomic influences with the MAVT
results, hybrid solar PV versions are identified as having the greatest
potential. In second place are hybrid wind solutions, which have the
shortcoming that good wind conditions occur only in coastal regions where
there are fewer mining activities. Geothermal hybrid versions are the least
favourable owing to the lack of service infrastructure and high initial
investment costs.
Description
CITATION: Votteler, R. G. & Brent, A. C. 2017. A mining perspective on the potential of renewable electricity sources for operations in South Africa : Part 2 – A multi-criteria decision assessment. Journal of the Southern African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, 117(3):299-312, doi:10.17159/2411-9717/2017/v117n3a11.
The original publication is available at http://www.saimm.co.za
The original publication is available at http://www.saimm.co.za
Keywords
Renewable energy sources, Decision making, Macroeconomics, Mining engineering
Citation
Votteler, R. G. & Brent, A. C. 2017. A mining perspective on the potential of renewable electricity sources for operations in South Africa : Part 2 – A multi-criteria decision assessment. Journal of the Southern African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, 117(3):299-312, doi:10.17159/2411-9717/2017/v117n3a11