BATTERY AND ELECTRIC MACHINES
battery-electric OEM platforms currently on the market , according to Lawn .
The ‘ platform approach ’
“ The mining market is probably the only electrification market in the world today that has a clearly-defined value proposition for going electric , particularly when it comes to underground mining .”
Barry Flannery , Founder and CEO / CTO of Ireland-based battery systems company Xerotech , spells out the reason why his company has put all its ‘ green ’ battery eggs into the mining and construction basket .
“ The green attributes and climate change aspects are really important things , but when it comes down to hard dollars , electrification is a much easier ‘ sell ’ when you can talk about some of the benefits that come with eliminating diesel from underground mining such as reducing ventilation and cooling needs , and the like ,” he told IM .
Xerotech , which only started operating in 2015 , believes it has a unique proposition for the mining OEM crowd looking to go electric .
Thomas Tomaszewski , VP of Business Development , conveys this : “ In contrast with our competitors , we are exclusively focused on the mining and construction markets and solving their challenges .”
The fact the company is tailoring its offering to these two sectors means the machines OEMs make can be equipped with batteries that suit the application at hand .
Flannery explained : “ Scalability and flexibility are really important when it comes to mining . When you look at any OEM – and even within the offering of a single OEM – they have an entire family of equipment that can be extremely diverse . They have built their businesses on the assumption they can buy a whole suite of engines off the shelf from all the well-known players to fit those machines .”
It is very different on the battery system side , according to Flannery .
“ Generally speaking , yes , you can get a diesel equivalent in battery form , but it will probably be custom engineered for you ,” he said . “ It ’ s the tooling costs , the engineering charges and everything else you are paying for .”
The automotive sector is happy to pay for this privilege , with peers across the industry able to spread that increased cost over tens or hundreds of thousands of vehicles .
“ If you are only making 20 drilling jumbos a year , it becomes a lot harder to absorb a couple of millions of euros of engineering charges into it ,” Flannery said .
This has , in general , left mining OEMs with two choices : take the financial hit that comes with having these battery systems tailormade for the required application or rely on more ‘ popular ’ battery systems that are less expensive but might not be as efficient .
Xerotech will soon be providing a third option , according to Flannery .
“ We have identified that a platform approach is the only viable way to accelerate electrification in this sector ,” he said . “ You have to have a product and production line that can be easily modified .”
This approach involves a “ common building block ” where components can be added / subtracted along the production line as needed to provide the battery system required . These components are shared across the various systems to allow the sort of scale the wider
Xerotech will soon be able to provide battery systems starting at 10 kWh and going up to 300 kWh , according to Barry Flannery
mining and construction industries would require .
At the same time , the power requirements can be tailored in 5-10 kWh intervals , allowing Xerotech to provide systems starting at 10 kWh and going up to 300 kWh , according to Flannery . The company follows the standard 2170 battery cell formula , but can incorporate LFP , NMC or NCA chemistries into the mix .
“ I can give you a battery that recharges in 15 minutes or one that gives you 10,000 cycles of life at a fifth of the cost of the other one ,” Flannery said . “ It ’ s all about flexibility .”
Tomaszewski added : “ Customers can choose one configuration today and a different configuration tomorrow .”
With the company in the process of expanding from a 50 MWh pilot line in operation to serial production of 250 MWh , due for completion in the March quarter of 2022 , it is well on its way to being acknowledged on a global scale .
Flannery says discussions with major OEMs are already ongoing , and its systems will soon be
MARCH 2021 | International Mining 21