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Mining, Oil & Gas · Free tool
Off-grid Mining Energy Payback Calculator
Many off-grid, high-altitude mines in the Puna and the Andes run on trucked-in diesel. This calculator estimates how much of that diesel a solar PV + battery (BESS) system can displace, what it saves per year, how long it takes to pay back, and how much CO₂ it avoids. Replace the defaults with your own site data and supplier quotes.
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Simple payback
Diesel displaced
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Net savings, year 1
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Diesel avoided per year
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CO₂ avoided per year
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Capex (PV + BESS)
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NPV
Where the site's energy comes from
Solar, direct
Solar via BESS
Diesel
Sensitivity to delivered diesel price
| Diesel USD/L | Net savings/yr | Payback |
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Does the battery pay for itself?
| Configuration | Displaced | Payback |
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How the numbers are calculated
- Daily energy balance. Site demand = average load × 24 h. Solar generation = MWp × specific yield ÷ 365. Solar can feed the load directly only during sunlit hours and only up to the maximum share the gensets allow; surplus charges the battery (one cycle per day, limited by usable capacity and round-trip efficiency); anything left is curtailed.
- Diesel avoided = solar energy delivered ÷ genset efficiency. Fuel savings = liters avoided × delivered diesel price. Genset O&M savings scale with the energy no longer produced by diesel.
- Capex = MWp × USD/Wp + MWh × USD/kWh. Simple payback = capex ÷ year-1 net savings (fuel + genset O&M − PV/BESS O&M). NPV discounts annual net savings over the horizon, with diesel escalation applied to fuel savings.
- CO₂ uses 10.21 kg CO₂ per US gallon of diesel (≈2.70 kg/L), from the US EPA emission factors for greenhouse gas inventories.
- Limits. Annual averages hide seasonality and cloudy days, so results are optimistic for very large solar fractions. Battery degradation, PV degradation, altitude derating of gensets, taxes, financing structure (EPC vs. PPA) and RIGI incentives are not modeled. Use it to size the conversation, not to sign a contract.
- Reference case. The Lindero-scale preset uses the reported 6 MWp + 12 MWh hybrid system at Mina Lindero (Salta, ~3,800 m), where the operator estimates roughly a 40% annual cut in diesel use. The 4 MW average load and all cost inputs are assumptions, not published figures. The large brine preset is illustrative and does not describe a specific project.
Sources: EconoJournal — Lindero, first hybrid mine in the Puna · Global Solar Atlas (World Bank / Solargis) · US EPA GHG Emission Factors Hub
Running a mine, an EPC or a project fund in the Puna? The hard part usually isn't the panels, it's measuring and reporting what the hybrid system actually saves versus what was promised, across fuel logs, genset hours and ESG reports. Talk to us about your data.