Minerals
Large mining, mineral and building products manufacturers are among the largest energy consumers and as such, energy saving opportunities exist at a range of different scales within the industry from lighting to crushers, conveyors to multi-million pound kilns, not forgetting large scale quarry operations with significant fuel consumption frequently accounting for up to 50% of the energy spend on a quarry/aggregate plant.
Mining operational savings from energy efficiency
Energy solutions for fixed sites and remote locations without grid-tie options.
This is an industry that is highly responsive to market changes and that has suffered as a result of drops in construction during the late 00’s. Markets are now recovering and many facilities which have had limited investment in recent years are now under pressure to scale up production while simultaneously being set energy reduction targets in order to meet corporate and social responsibility goals.
Ameresco’s unique approach, taking time to truly understand the process and how energy is used to drive that process, is of particular value in industries under these types of constraints as in many instances, energy saving opportunities drive improvements in process visibility, process control and increased throughput.
With a huge cost base and large manufacturing facilities, mineral and mineral processing industries are in a prime position to take advantage of a variety of energy projects: Integrated heat recovery, VSDs, system control strategies, metering projects, lighting LED projects, compressed air improvement, BEMS and SCADA projects.
In addition, large renewable and decentralised energy projects are often viable on sites which are owned, well established and which often have significant available space which could be used for on-site generation (e.g. Gas, Biomass and Biogas CHP, roof or ground mounted solar panels, on-site wind turbines).
High costs of shutdowns or brownouts remain a prime issue for sites, and this can help the case for onsite generation from a security of supply perspective, as well as generating demand-side revenue from the existing standby generation assets. Coupled with some smart procurement, this revenue can frequently be the enabler for Investment grade Studies which, in turn, unlock ESPC projects.
