Voltalia, IFC Team to Decarbonize Africa’s Mines

• Voltalia and IFC power Africa’s mines with solar, wind and batteries—replacing diesel and coal to cut costs, boost reliability, and accelerate net-zero, country by country.

French renewable-power producer Voltalia has partnered with the International Finance Corporation to deploy green-energy projects at mining sites across Africa, aiming to decarbonize a sector heavily reliant on diesel and coal. The collaboration seeks to replace or hybridize mine power systems with solar, wind and battery storage, improving reliability while cutting fuel costs and emissions.

IFC, part of the World Bank Group, will bring financing and advisory support, while Voltalia will develop, build and operate on-site and grid-connected assets under long-term contracts. The initiative targets multiple countries and miners, aligning with net-zero goals and Africa’s push for cleaner, competitive commodities.

How will Voltalia and IFC decarbonize African mines with renewables and storage?

• Deploy site-specific hybrid power plants that combine solar PV, wind, and dispatchable battery energy storage systems (BESS) to displace 50–90% of diesel runtime, with thermal gensets retained only as backup or for peak/ramp support.
  
• Size BESS for multi-hour shifting (2–6 hours) to cover evening peaks and cloud gaps, and add short-duration high-C-rate batteries for grid-forming, spinning reserve replacement, and frequency/voltage control.
  
• Implement modular, relocatable microgrids engineered for mine-life timelines, enabling BOO/BOOT models that match production phases and decommissioning plans.
• Use long-term power purchase agreements tailored to mining load profiles (24/7 baseload plus process peaks), with performance guarantees on availability, delivered MWh, and specific emissions intensity.
• Combine on-site generation with wheeled power from larger off-site renewables where land or wind/solar resource is constrained, using utility interconnects and private wires where feasible.
  
• Apply advanced energy management systems with forecasting, dispatch optimization, and curtailment minimization to balance ore processing, ventilation, dewatering, and camps’ demand against variable renewables.
  
• Finance with blended instruments—IFC loans, guarantees, and potential concessional tranches—to reduce cost of capital, crowd in commercial lenders, and unlock bankable tariffs for miners.
  
• Mitigate country and offtaker risk via political risk insurance, partial credit guarantees, and escrowed payment structures to support long-tenor contracts.
  
• Upgrade interconnection and protection systems to meet grid codes, enable black-start capability for islanded operation, and add harmonic filtering for heavy drives in mills and crushers.
  
• Deliver phased build-outs: fast-track 10–20 MW PV + BESS diesel-hybrid in year 1, expand to 50–150 MW hybrid plants as pits and processing scale, with storage augmentation as battery prices fall.
  
• Integrate demand-side measures—process load shifting, smart ventilation schedules, and electrified pit operations—to raise renewable penetration without jeopardizing throughput.
  
• Support mine fleet electrification by adding DC fast-charging and buffering chargers with BESS to shave peaks and utilize surplus midday solar.
  Track and verify emissions cuts through metered diesel displacement and standardized Scope 1/2 accounting, reporting against miners’ SBTi or net-zero targets.
  
• Offer lifecycle O&M with local workforce training, spare-part strategies, and predictive maintenance to sustain high availability in harsh conditions.
  
• Localize value chains where possible—module mounting, cabling, civil works—to create jobs and secure community acceptance, paired with community power where grid access is limited.
  Provide contingency designs for dust, heat, and blasting zones: ruggedized PV mounts, oversizing inverters, and strategic array placement to maintain yield.
  
• Use multi-technology hedging across wind and solar to smooth seasonal variability; in wind-rich corridors, add modest wind shares to lift nighttime renewable coverage.
• Embed mine-closure flexibility by designing assets to be repurposed to nearby communities or industrial users post-mining, enhancing social license and residual value.
• Target levelized cost reductions of 20–40% versus diesel-only generation and CO2e reductions of 0.6–0.9 t per MWh displaced, depending on fuel logistics and genset efficiency.