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Meticulac t1_ixpm7lm wrote

Nice, being able to collect battery material with equipment powered by the same type of battery could be great for furthering public confidence.

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c0mad0r t1_ixpq0ho wrote

For the ultimate irony, watch it get used to haul coal now.

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mynorthanchor t1_ixpqg0k wrote

God I love giant earthwork equipment. Super cool story

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echoshadow5 t1_ixps2mg wrote

And yet being “charged” my a fleet of diesel generators for days is more of a laughingstock, while the diesel powered trucks will work full work schedule shifts. But hey, it’s an option. Doesn’t mean it’s a good one. It’s like bbq fund raisers for PETA

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DashingDino t1_ixpxfd0 wrote

Obviously this is just for testing, in daily usage they would be charged from the power grid because electricity is way cheaper than fuel. Also EV is perfect for vehicles that make short trips in a single area.

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BLSmith2112 t1_ixq7pdd wrote

Energy generation will obviously through market forces alone become sustainable. If you look at any trend over the last 10 years it is beyond obvious. Even dirty generating power plants are more efficient than in vehicle combustion.

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Eric_the_Barbarian t1_ixqfag4 wrote

Isn't there already at least one of these is Switzerland? I remember seeing an article about how it actually generates a net positive of electricity because it goes up empty and uses regenerative braking to control speed coming back down loaded.

Found it

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Ok_Fox_1770 t1_ixqhm58 wrote

Wonder how quiet it is. That would be the most jarring part if it’s mostly silent.

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fred1445 t1_ixqj2m6 wrote

it will only work at half power but if u upgrade to the new $140,000 monthly subscription u get full power!!

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c87197078 t1_ixqkob2 wrote

Glad to hear mining has gone green!

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cruisin5268d t1_ixqmtm1 wrote

Electric mining equipment is nothing new. Giant crawlers have existed powered by massive electric cable tethers.

This just cuts that cord. And even if they are recharged on site by diesel generators that is still more efficient in the end. Diesel/electric hybrid technology has been around for decades

Why are you so threatened by EVs?

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crazyjames1224 t1_ixqnc7i wrote

This is simply a stupid take. This is obviously a test piece and eventually renewables will take over and the power grid will become clean. Arguing for any other way forward is idiotic, for the life of me I will never understand why people are so enamored of old technology.

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Vinyalonde t1_ixqpl0r wrote

I wouldn’t think electric motors that large would be quiet. There is also the sound of the wheels as they roll and any hydraulics for steering. Good question though.

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Vinyalonde t1_ixqq4ro wrote

Some haulage trucks have electrical connections like electric trains so that they can travel up long ramps out of the mining pit. Basically they have an overhead rail like trains and that allows them to tap into a power grid. I imagine such a setup could allow for greater running efficiency.

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HAHA_goats t1_ixqr9hp wrote

Gotta quibble that efficiency claim.

Gensets have pretty poor efficiency. It's not likely to be more efficient than the on-board engine. You get some benefit when scaling up, so one big generator is better than multiple small ones if you have a consistently high demand. That leaves a little room for gains if you'll be constantly recharging multiple trucks. But that will almost certainly be offset by losses in the batteries themselves.

Fossil fuel power plants on the grid just use a much more efficient heat cycle than diesel. It's hands-down better to charge vehicles from the grid or renewable.

edit for the stupid: I am not arguing against battery EVs. I'm just pointing out that charging them with diesel gensets isn't beneficial.

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Much-Addition6675 t1_ixqscdv wrote

In order to power all the electric cars we have t go back to coal. This current administration is a king it harder to pull natural gas and they want to further strain the grid. Idiocy

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Evn-erl t1_ixqwpa1 wrote

What’s great about something like this that is so massive with so much battery space is you can use it to store energy for the grid when it’s not in use like weekends. Same thing with school buses, vtg is going to be what allows us to have this transition without putting too much stress on the grid

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Wazowski_Michael t1_ixr0q98 wrote

Great! Now they can expose the environment to toxic underground compounds sustainably! /s

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Novelsound t1_ixrez8o wrote

A lot of these haul trucks run electric motors already. The wheels have electric motors and the diesel engine just spins an alternator. This just replaces the Diesel engine with batteries.

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Kaheri t1_ixrw16v wrote

Does anyone know what restricts the size of these trucks? Technology? Practicality? Further reading would be appreciated.

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Redrump1221 t1_ixryhj1 wrote

Lots of restrictions actually incliding what you state. Also costs of the equipmemt/engineering/maintenance, physical limitations of loading equipment, fueling infrastructure(most trucks are diesel electric), making the trucks intuitive to drive ( autonomous loading isnt quite there in most scenarios).

I dont have much you can read (maybe check mining magazines). I think most manufacturers keep stuff like this secret since the shareholders would be angry if they stagnate.

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Redrump1221 t1_ixrz04b wrote

Green trucks for loading coal into the power plants.... woo /s

In reality the cost of switching to "green" trucks will be immense meaning not many will be switching anytime soon.

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JollyTotal3653 t1_ixsa1xg wrote

This isn’t that crazy im pretty sure they are already diesel electric anyway so all they did was swap out the generator for a battery.

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echoshadow5 t1_ixsrr6v wrote

So any kind of criticism is now offensive and counterproductive? What renewables are you taking about? Let’s just clear the air. Is the current way better? Fuck no. Can it be better? Hell yes. Old technology built this modern world. Improving old tech with new tech is the way forward. Case point: Asbestos. Everyone and their momma rave and ranted, it was all over Popular Mechanics, and countless Engineering articles. A few decades later what have we found?

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crazyjames1224 t1_ixssc1a wrote

Definitely not what I said, I never implied all criticism was bad, I only said that your point was stupid, which it was. Also renewables are largely solar, with some wind, hydro, and geothermal mixed in where appropriate. Solar is everywhere now, and it’s big money because the utilities can buy the power from a solar farm cheaper than they can generate it from fossil fuels.

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JollyTotal3653 t1_ixsv6aq wrote

some mines already use overhead cables to power trucks waiting in long lines and going up long grades. Really it’s a matter of allowing the trucks to go from the cables to a load site and then back to the cables… reasonable imo

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opeth10657 t1_ixsvnb5 wrote

Extra weight drains battery extremely fast, look at what towing does to EV range. Unless these have incredibly high transfer voltage they're going to spend a lot of time charging

If they're using cables in long lines and climbing, how much better will these really be vs a diesel electric?

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iledgib t1_ixsw1jf wrote

it is for mining irony

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JollyTotal3653 t1_ixswrig wrote

I’m no engineer so don’t expect a crazy in debt analysis from me, I’m just saying they already use overhead cables. Some electric trains have batteries for short movements away from overhead lines… I’m assuming this is a similar idea, recall these things have multi ton engines that are being removed not just diesel. If that huge engine is only being used for short distances it may be viable in the future to change those out for batteries as the electric drive system is already in place what would be removed is the diesel (more energy dense than battery I know) and the massive diesel engine and all it’s components, (all together likely close to the same if not less energy dense for short trips from the cables to the load site and back) considering all the electric system really needs to add is batteries and a controller it may be possible that the battery powered trucks could be viable in the future given the site has the proper infrastructure to support it.

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opeth10657 t1_ixsx6be wrote

> recall these things have multi ton engines that are being removed not just diesel

Similar to ICE and electric cars, it's just that the batteries weigh more than everything they remove. They'll probably have to add a lot of weight in batteries even to move it a short distance

Our current battery tech is pretty limiting

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echoshadow5 t1_ixsyuvx wrote

Oh good solar. How good is your math? Simple math problem what is the output required to recharge an EV? How many hours in the day is it good for? Wind power: it’s a good source, if space is available. Geothermal, who has it? Hydro, that is actually very sustainable. Yet it’s geo locked to rivers and flooding a good size valley. You should be able to answer that right. It’s simple.

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echoshadow5 t1_ixszswy wrote

Market forces? Ok simple math problem Which of these market forces generates energy the same as a gas powered power plant? Which vehicle are we talking about? A hybrid? A PEZV vehicle, or how about a diesel simi truck? For how long? A year? A day? An hour? Please do tell where that info you got came from? A study or just from a tiktok clip or a tweet?

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Soupkitchn89 t1_ixt5hme wrote

I was like wow we are training caterpillars to drive?!

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MyPacman t1_ixtmvqg wrote

>Our current battery tech is pretty limiting

An incremental improvement is better than no improvement. These are a better choice, and what comes after them will be an improvement too.

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ForkLiftBoi t1_ixtvvs0 wrote

To add to the other commenters the size to transport them. They complete their assembly on site. The wheels are about 12 feet high. A lot of their shipping requires wide load permits which adds time and cost to ship.

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crazyjames1224 t1_ixtxjw1 wrote

Jesus Christ do you know what a battery is? I literally work in Solar the output is whatever you want it to be based on the field size and whatever transformer you’re using, with a battery storage system it can output all night too. I have no idea where you’re getting the idea that EV’s have this crazy charging requirement that can’t be met, it just isn’t true.

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echoshadow5 t1_ixty6a5 wrote

So you don’t know math is what you are telling me. It really is a math problem. You clam to work in solar, are you a salesman? Must because you can’t answer a math problem. I’ll help you out a bit. How much kWh can 1 solar panel produce in a day. Now figure out what size kWh battery you want to charge. Do the math. You can do it. I’m rooting for you.

Oh you didn’t try to answer the other renewable energy questions. At lest name one geothermal power plant.

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crazyjames1224 t1_ixtz41c wrote

You clearly don’t know Solar because you’re asking about mWh from a single panel, then you’re asking about the battery size? The battery is sized to the field. If it’s a 500 megawatt site (which is a small one competitively) then the battery will be sized accordingly so that the site charges it during the day and then discharged at night to keep power flowing into the grid.

An EV will take about 50kWh to fully charge, and that can be done with a single 50kw string inverter and about 150 individual Solar modules (panels). So with a single inverter (there are literally hundreds on some sites) I can fully charge an EV in less than 30 minutes with a super charger.

And before you give me shit saying about the dumb wall charger taking way longer, yes but it will use the same amount of power overall to charge the vehicle because it’s still the same amount of wattage.

You keep acting like there’s some magical math equation that makes you right and there isn’t because you’re not.

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