This GIANT Electric Mining Truck Is Making Batteries Cleaner!

[@ImogenBhogal]

We have been very anxious to dig (pun intended) into some of these "hard to abate industries" - what should we delve into next or in more detail?

[@origin178]

Try looking at boats - particularly yachts and superyachts. They use vast amounts of diesel just for fun, and the pace of innovation in electric propulsion is appallingly slow.

[@jbmaru]

The current state of coal replacement in steel & cement industries?

[@propellhatt]

Great Job, Imogen, an interesting and excellent view on how far Electrical vehicle technology can go. How about looking at the electrification of commercial aviation, how far are we from making this actual reality? Is it a fever dream that will remain ever so close yet not attainable, or are the solutions just around the corner?

[@ImogenBhogal]

@@jbmaru that's a great idea

[@ImogenBhogal]

@@propellhatt great idea - so far we've looked at Zero Avia , Electroflight, Harbour Air Seaplanes and a few other little diddly ones but we need to look at the big big commercial airlines!

[@maxtorque2277]

After working in electric traction for the best part of 20 years now, i still love the incredible flexibility and possibilities that this technology brings. In this case, i think it's amazing that dropping water, hundreds of miles away, actually lifts up rock in the mine! It's like an huge invisible yet very efficient lever 🙂

[@shonunezekiel]

I love your imagery of a lever!! I was thinking how, over millennia, the flow of water has eroded rock to shape the landscape - now it is doing it in partnership with humans, but much faster :D This is such a cool project!

[@mycosys]

These guys really need someone who knows electric traction - Imogen is awesome but someone with knowledge of the last couple of decades of industry practice, and just how reliable electric traction has proven to be in the largest equipment on earth, could have added so much to that story (particularly in terms of the greenwashing thats just industry best practice for efficiency). Im just a mechatronic eng but theres so much more there i wanted to know.

[@TanyaLairdCivil]

I just love how this demonstrates sometimes the simplest solution is the best. One person might look at some of this electric mining equipment and say, "hmm, let's find an exotic new battery chemistry that will produce unprecedented range, power, and power density." Then someone else said, "what if we just plugged it in?"

[@hagestad]

Now it creates possibility of mountains of batteries that we are not able to recycle. Why are there millions of cars being produced when we cannot recycle them properly yet?

[@wonderonegaz]

Even more so, the very first electricity vehicles were electric! We went backward to go forward 100 years later?

[@benjaminmuscat7385]

As someone who works in heavy industry, getting EVs into these application would be a great thing! These machines are guzzlers and often spend a lot of time idling - not only is this idling causing emissions, but it's also stacking hours on the machine, causing shorter lifespan, extra servicing and decreasing the return the company sees for its purchase/operation.

[@dachr2]

Agreed. I've always wondered why excavators, trucks etc. are often just idling for very long periods of time at construction sites. It costs money, creates pollution and is very noisy on top of that.

[@alanhat5252]

@@dachr2 as a truck driver from a while ago I can answer that - reliability of starting systems. First thing in the morning there's lots of trucks all starting up at the same time & if yours fails to start you can get a jump or tow start from another truck. After that you leave the engine running till lunchtime where you're again among lots of trucks. This is especially true if you're using a tail-lift, even on a perfect truck you get at most 2 raises before the battery is drained so the engine won't start.

[@hoodio]

as someone who is active in the climate activism space, you have no idea how much joy it brings me to see people from the actual industry speaking so positively of electric. electric isn't the single one thing to save our climate but it's a huge part. thank you

[@the_lost_navigator7266]

This makes far more sense than fitting a haul truck with 12+ tons of batteries, and allows for 24/7 operation. The same goes for rhe highway in Germany that has overhead lines to power lorries. Trucks and lorries uae vastly more fuel than cars which are parked up for most of their life. More of this please.

[@morilot]

Acctually a full length Eurotruck at 25m and loaded with 74 metric tons uses less than 40L diesel/100km. That's equivalent to 5-8 normal diesel cars. With that said electrification of heavy traffic is very important.

[@the_lost_navigator7266]

@@morilot my car uses one litre of fuel per day. A truck burns 40 litres per hour for possibly more than 8 hours per day (if driven in shifts). It makes more sense to electrify high use vehicles, and far better to electrify them without huge batteries where possible.

[@morilot]

@@the_lost_navigator7266 Comparing the daily usage of your car with a 25m fully loaded truck is like comparing apples to an appletree. It's not relevant. Also very few trucks uses 40L an hour. I did say that it's important to electrify heavy traffic. But that doesn't mean we should use false facts. Most fully loaded 25m rigg with a total weight of 90 metric tons uses LESS that 40L diesel/100km. Let's say it's exactly 40L and the speedlimit for heavy traffic is 80km/h that's gives 32 L diesel/h. A fully high modern truck loaded with 40 metric tons (64tons total) might use 25 L/100km wich would correspond to 20L/h. If we don't put big batteries in them they can't go everywhere ...

[@fidelcatsro6948]

​@@morilotwow only 40L for 100km?? My 1200cc bike drinks 6L every 100km..I need to get those economical trucks

[@morilot]

@@fidelcatsro6948 Yeah, bikes have poor aerodynamics and drag increase exponentially with speed. If you limit your speed to 80 km/h you will both get better fuel economy and ruin a great bike ride.

[@patrickdgarez86]

A great pleasure to see EV tech being applied to heavy industry but also to see FCS touching on the environmental impact hat needs to be taken into account to fuel this evolution. The fact that this mine's power is fed by renewable hydro energy does negate the "are EVs really reducing the carbon footprint?" question. I would love to have had a broad stroke cost vs. financial benefit analysis (investment figures and cost savings per year). Finally, to repeat my previous comment. This presenter is excellent. Fluid, natural, passionate, concise and engaging. Thank you for the content.

[@alanhat5252]

It's not an "evolution", it's a _devolution_ of internal combustion engines. Electric motive power was developed at the same time as _steam,_ a full century before ICEs were even invented, electric has never gone away it just wasn't glamorous for most of its history.

[@johanj3674]

There's a similar project in Sweden, and I work at a factory making the copper wires. Nice being part of this evolution.

[@derrickstableford8152]

Will this be available in the test drive section at Fully Charged Canada?😊

[@WaterdropGirl]

Sure Derrick, in vr

[@muskrat3291]

Great video. I would like to see more videos like this one. The electrification of the mining industry needs to be talked about more to counter all the arguments by the EV haters

[@alanhat5252]

Especially the history - electric motive power was developed & in use at the same time as steam, a full century before internal combustion, & it's never gone away.

[@CausticLemons7]

Green mining is a wild concept and I love it!

[@SW-tech]

Very encouraging to see such responsible mining.

[@nomoreheroes93]

Nothing controversial about this EV, if anything it's controversial not more mining vehicles are electrified already! Great episode.

[@sparksmcgee6641]

They cant get the batteries. they all have products lined up.

[@ChromeFlakes]

I love that Imogen was driving a Rivian R1T. They could have hired any car but commitment to the cause, electric only. 🥳

[@ChristofferETJ]

Imogen is the perfect host to show the size of this machine.

[@Rohahahahahah]

Shes got such a weird but lowkey cool name tho lol

[@ImogenBhogal]

@@Rohahahahahah I can't take any credit for it, but thanks!

[@Alessandro---]

@ImogenBhogal, talking of size, I loved how the high-viz jacket was sized to the truck, not to you 😇😇😇

[@pugmanick]

This is very positive, and it is a sensible solution. As far as I'm aware, most mining trucks have been diesel electric for years, so the conversion to full electric is simple, on a per vehicle basis.

[@DemPilafian]

Many of my fellow environmentalists get trapped into thinking we must stop consumption. Impossible. We must stop waste and consume as smartly as possible. These big EV trucks are a great example of being smart and moving away from burning fossil fuel into the atmosphere. Awesome video!

[@dailyrider2975]

I'm pretty sure the "DIESEL" version is also using ELECTRIC motors for propulsion. Like a train, this hybrid tech has been in use for DECADES. In Scotland they had a cable bucket system to transport ore for more than a 100 yrs. Since mine was higher than ore processor it could be used to produce electricity as a braking system plus water and other supplies could be sent up with no energy cost using the weight of ore going down as power. Something similar in Switzerland where they drain electric trucks at bottom of hill by 50% since trucks act as electric generators as they bring the ore down. In this situation they have to bring the ore up to process.

[@alanhat5252]

Diesels at this scale are usually either Diesel-electric or Diesel-hydraulic.

[@alanhat5252]

@@orionbetelgeuse1937 Diesel engines are __heavy__ so substantially reduce the payload of the truck. Doubling the electric motor size means doubling the Diesel engine size, the engineers strike a balance where there is still a useful payload but swapping that huge engine for a very lightweight pantograph allows for much larger electric motors.

[@dailyrider2975]

Cool, I'll have to read up on hydraulic propulsion. @@alanhat5252

[@steveodea4884]

@dailyrider2974 you are correct!! 🙂

[@neutrino78x]

@@orionbetelgeuse1937 "So the video might be full of BS because the truck has the same power if it is powered by the diesel generator or through the pantograph because it has the same electric motor" There's no BS involved. With the electric truck, it's powered by hydroelectric (falling water), so there's no pollution. With diesel, there's lots more pollution emitted.

[@waynethefridgemanosborne8984]

Great video guys,. It's just getting better and better. Keep smiling everyone and good luck with the Canadian show.

[@Haiti3063]

Great to see you going to the source. Thanks for the reporting.

[@xxwookey]

This is very encouraging. Great report. Quite a lot of mining has been electric for a while. The world's biggest excavators (German opencast coal mines) have been electric for years. Interesting that for electrifying the haul operation they only had to increase the supply by 35% (65MW to 100MW). Some info on relative costs would help. Presumably they are mostly doing this because it's cheaper and the emissions reductions are a bonus, but possibly there is a policy incentive which helps make the accounts work?

[@alanhat5252]

Those big excavators were electric before internal combustion was invented & have remained electric in most roles, Diesel is used where the machine's position changes frequently but the weight of the Diesel engine substantially reduces payload so electric is preferred wherever reasonably practical.

[@zapfanzapfan]

With a bit of battery on board they could recharge from regen braking going down hill. When trains and trams do it they put electricity back into the overhead wires but here it seems there are only wires for going uphill.

[@tokiomitohsaka7770]

“Biggest electric vehicle we have ever seen… ever.” Actually, you did visit on an enormous electric ferry in Denmark if I recall…

[@matneu27]

Also China has introduced a battery operated overseas container vessel yet.

[@ehhhhhhhhhh]

I've often heard that EVs are not nearly as green as they could be, simply because mines use so much petroleum, and then shipping the material requires petroleum. If mines can cut their diesel usage by ~95%, and then the materials can be hauled on Tesla trucks... and the vehicles are run on pure hydro, solar, and wind energy on the grid, it sure as heck seems like things can get pretty green pretty quickly if we put our minds to it.

[@oBCHANo]

Tesla trucks are literally just a scam, they're not going to be a thing.

[@-PORK-CHOP-]

It was refreshing to see Imogen reporting on this as she offers a no fuss explanation of the subject, rather than listening to Robert Ranting and Raving like some madman, still a lot of questions were not answered like does it use it's diesel engine to get to the sections of the mine where the powerlines are not installed, is there a battery in the truck to assist when not connected to the power lines, does it have regenerative braking on the return trip, or does it use the diesel engine to power it back down the hill ?

[@lennyvalentin6485]

I've said the same thing a couple times in the past, but it bears repeating I feel - the speed advantage you see here with the grid-powered electric hauling trucks (3MW!!!! omg lol) is something you get with battery-electric buses as well. We have articulated electric MAN and Volvo buses since a year-plus now in my city - these weigh about 30 tons empty weight, but they climb even steep hills just as fast as a passenger vehicle, and they can even accelerate while climbing. No diesel horker of a bus can do that. They drop down to low gear and chuff along at jogging speed up those hills, with a queue of cars forming behind them, sometimes tempting some to make dangerous overtakes of the bus. So a win there for safety, and also accessibility - you get where you want to go just a little quicker. The bus drivers also seem to like driving them - heavy-footed drivers tend to accelerate so hard it's difficult to hold on while standing upright in the center aisle... :P

[@dylanpaquette8330]

I actually work at copper mountain and drive these trolley trucks every day, massive difference in fuel consumption and yet way faster

[@Simon-dm8zv]

Cool!

[@accesser]

Great production, and well documented

[@antonydanby]

Hmmm, wasn't that ferry in Norway technically bigger ;-)

[@Sparky783]

I thought this too, probably meant land vehicle.

[@andymccabe6712]

Nobody loves a pedant, Antony......!!

[@ulwur]

You forget about railways. How about the 9000ton load iron ore railway Luleå to narvik that have been electrified since the 1920's.

[@t1n4444]

​@@ulwur Electrically powered pleasure boats were cruising on the Thames from late 1800s. Google is your friend.

[@nc3826]

Being pedantic..... Brits favorite pastime....

[@ASkippingRock]

Fantastic presentation with great information!

[@rlaxton666]

When I visited the Superpit gold mine in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia, i discovered that the hail trucks there use as much diesel in half a shift (refuel period) as my Toyota Prado would use in the 8000km round trip from Melbourne to Perth. The amount of fuel used by these trucks is astonishing.

[@jimthain8777]

Now do the cost math. Diesel is about $2.00 per litre here in BC. When you start adding it up the cost is as enormous as the truck is. That's why this is such a smart idea.

[@Danger_mouse]

That is highly unlikely to change in Australia. The haul path in the Super Pit changes too frequently and the emissions would simply move from the tailpipe to the the generation plants. WA uses a combination of coal, gas and waste burning plants and some wind and solar in their mixed grid. The other thing to raise is the demand on the local grid and how to upgrade that cost effectively. Many Australian mines are so far remote that they have no choice but to generate their own electricity from diesel or gas generators.

[@jimthain8777]

@@Danger_mouse Whenever you move emissions from tailpipe to power plant you reduce emissions. The reason for that is a power plant burns far more efficiently than a "small" combustion engine. While these trucks ARE big, a power station is much bigger.

[@Danger_mouse]

@@jimthain8777 This is understood mate, what I'm saying is that for mines in places like Australia, they can't plug into the grid. There's either not enough capacity in the grid to the minesite to take on an electric fleet, or there's no grid at all. Currently operating mines had their power budgets set in the planning stages sometimes 30yrs ago. To duplicate the grid out to these remote locations is not feasible or economical.

[@qtheband751]

Fully Charged is getting some good local content in while visiting the coastal province.

[@ronblack7870]

i think the mine looks beautiful especially the layers going down the pit.

[@SuperMarway]

Interesting to see if there's been any incidents with these cables on the ground.

[@markiliff]

Old ones: black. New ones: yellow. I think that tells a story.

[@kylekleman]

Do you know if it has batteries? Regen might not work if you don’t have onboard batteries.

[@mycosys]

This has been a thing since the 70s, the largest vehicles on earth are all mains electric.

[@EugeneLambert]

Outstanding episode, and just shows what is possible with determination, plus government and industry working together. 👍

[@AlRoderick]

This one bugs me a little bit, but GHG and greenhouse gas have the same number of syllables so it doesn't make sense to say GHG aloud. I get using abbreviations in writing. That makes perfect sense but you don't need to do it when you're speaking, especially when saying the letters in an acronym makes the acronym longer to say (I'm looking at you any phrase containing the letter "w")

[@PaulG.x]

Yes ,but jargon and acronyms are far more cool if you want to sound knowledgable to the ignorant

[@karl0ssus1]

Same syllables yes, but one is easier and faster to speak

[@nc3826]

This one bugs me a little bit, comments that can't see the forest for the trees.

[@SmashingBricksAU]

The Komatsu 830e was the haul truck in the video. One of the best trucks in its class. Using overhead power lines on long haul roads is a great way to start removing diesel usage. to correct something in the video @4:42, the slower haul truck going up the haul road is still electric it is just getting its power from the diesel electric generator on board. it is an older 830e truck. It still has electric drive wheel motors the same as the truck running on the overhead wires.

[@universeisundernoobligatio3283]

If the trucks had some batteries they could use regen on the way down, replace the small desiel for moving about when over head wires are not available.

[@curtisbme]

Nice to see that Colin Robinson has found a new job.

[@davidf2281]

Plenty of energy for him to feed on, I guess

[@peterswinson326]

Surprised they didn't mention anything about using re-gen on the way back down, either to power other trucks going up or an onboard battery

[@Sekir80]

They didn't say this definitely, but from experience I suppose they haven't got traction batteries onboard. The trucks use diesel to reach the overhead lines, after that an onboard inverter/controller converts the electricity directly to the drive motors. IF this is the case, downhill electricity generation is out of the question, they would need overhead lines on the downhill as well. We didn't see them, though, so maybe they are present. Edit: oh, we see downhill trucks at 2:05. No overhead line.

[@jamesphillips2285]

If they are not hooked up to the catenary on the way down: they may be burning it all off in resistor grids.

[@Sekir80]

@@jamesphillips2285 Most probably, if they use elecrodynamic braking. I bet they do.

[@durwoodmaccool890]

@@Sekir80 Maybe a small onboard battery to store regen and move around away from the lines would be a solution? Could help smooth out demand on the lines as well. Possibly a next iteration improvement.

[@Sekir80]

@@durwoodmaccool890 Define, small. 😀 We are dealing with huge powers here. A "small" battery must be capable of handling that. As said the truck uses 3MW of power uphills. Moving that on flat ground probably requires 1MW. This means a battery pack of 100kWh is 10C discharging, which is pretty high. But of course, it is doable, just the right size (and weight) needs to be added.

[@Ice_Karma]

LOL, I know it means "effort", but as a speaker of Canadian English, my first thought on hearing "graft" is "bribe", not "effort". 🤣

[@mikemellor759]

Fascinating video - an excellent script - what a polished presenter is Imogen 👏👏

[@danielrose1392]

I am a bit confused by the title. The Kumatsu 830E-5 with trolley assist can run fully electric on below the overhead wires, but to my knowledge it's not a battery electric vehicle. With the title "Is There A Limit To What Can Be Battery Electric?" I would expect at least a few words about these limits in the video.

[@Dragonited]

You should check out LKAB in Sweden that also uses a lot of electric loaders. Some of the biggest in the world in their Kiruna mine. They are also using a lot of hydropower and are starting to look into using electricaly produced hydrogen to heat the ore to refine their metals.

[@RoydenThomson]

Thanks for driving into the new ways we see electrification beyond passenger cars. While the video touched lightly on the environmental and indigenous impacts of mining, I do think more could have been mentioned about the very heavy consequences of mining and what is being done other than electrification. Here in Canada we see waterways polluted and blocked and the forced takeover of indigenous lands for resource development. This video is a great start, but because the point of this show is to ultimately promote sustainability, other environmental and social impacts should be explored further.

[@johnhavens8199]

Lessons can be learned here about how to start electrifying the agriculture heavy equipment here in the US. Caterpiller, John Deer, New Holland etc, etc need to get on the ball in providing electric ag vehicles as well as special means of getting massive amounts of electricity out to all the huge number of crops growing on the huge numbers of different terrains.

[@velotill]

most well run farms already produce heaps of rooftop solar, and then where there is open farmland there should be wind power avaliable as well. I can see both swappable high voltage power packs (or containerized on-site CCS charging docks) serving mashinery as well as a buffer for running the farm at times of reduced PV production. Volvo and CAT already are working on that (while JCB has hitched it's waggon to H2. At the same time there already are autonomous farming bots that are a fraction of a large tractor, both battery driven and with a cable attached. My biggest worry are the Diesel loving nay-sayers among the farming community itself. The comment section under most videos showing what's already possible (or me making a suggestion to go electric under a video fetishizing the latest ICE mashine) are really horrendous, especially when taking into consideration the fact that this needs to be started before the decade is out. Full transition to doing things the non fossile way to be done withing the next 15 years : /

[@marviwilson1853]

The great hope is off course that new batteries and energy storage devices are developed that no longer require these metals and therefore the mines needed to produce them.

[@philipbechtel7651]

Hurrah for British Columbia !!!

[@SequoiaElisabeth]

Nice to see industry making the effort to move toward carbon neutral. Funny to me that it's based on century old tech. It really is about choices.

[@alanmay7929]

Century old tech with much more modern technology too lol!!

[@alanmay7929]

Both ICE and electric are century old techs electric even much older and the funny thing is that it's ICE that made all that possible from the construction of power stations to the grid ...even the roads and more.

[@Amuzic_Earth]

Thanks to this company for doing what nobody has done before. everybody would eventually follow their footsteps.

[@millertas]

Love the optimism. My two grandchildren have a future, it won't be the same as what I experienced but no worse.

[@brianwaters8269]

More of this type of content please, super interesting

[@benpaynter]

I'm sure others have already pointed it out, but having electric shovels and drills isn't part of a concerted move to more sustainable methods, it's simply that it's the best way to power machines like that. I worked in Australian coal mines back in the early 2010s and they were using electric kit then but they just powered it from dirty diesel generators as that was the cheapest and most efficient way to power the machinery. Its just an added bonus if you can use green electricity

[@neutrino78x]

"but having electric shovels and drills isn't part of a concerted move to more sustainable methods, " Yeah it is. The company said in the video that they are going green and that's part of it. Eliminating as much diesel equipment as they can, assembling solar at the site if needed, using green power as much as they can etc. "I worked in Australian coal mines back in the early 2010s and they were using electric kit then" I don't think they had battery powered mining trucks at that point. Electric perhaps, with a long cable and/or overhead wire but not battery. Historically most of those huge mining trucks were diesel. Electric, be it overhead wire or battery, is obviously a lot better. And of course coal is on the way out. We had one coal plant here in California that was running a steel operation or something like that....iirc it closed down a few years ago. Most days we're 85% solar when the sun is up. On the hottest days when everybody is using AC, it brings us down to 70%, still a clear majority is solar. For any given 24 hour period, we average out at least 60% zero emission over the whole day (solar, geothermal, wind, hydroelectric, nuclear (we have one 2 GW nuclear plant, and 20 GW grid scale solar).

[@benpaynter]

@@neutrino78x They weren't using battery powered trucks when I was in Oz, they were using electric shovels and drag lines with cables linked to diesel generators as there was no grid electricity in those remote sites. I stand by the point that the mining industry isn't doing this as part of a concerted move to being greener, they're doing it because it saves money, is efficient and that has the happy coincidence of being greener. In some parts of the world such as Canada you have ready access to cheap clean grid electricity which makes things more financially sustainable. They're using solar in remote Australian mines but again, this is because its cheaper than trucking diesel to site so there's a profit motive. They also dress that up as though they are doing it for the environmental benefits when its actually about increasing the bottom line. They have been using electric shovels and drag liners for decades, long before they were going green simply because it's the most efficient way to run large kit like that. I'm entirely in favour and supportive of it but my point is that they're dressing it up as them doing it to be green when it's not. There's lots of other initiatives the mining industry can do to be more sustainable but don't because it doesn't save them money. I get why, at the end of the day they're businesses and their only goal is to make money but they to pretend you're doing something because its green when in fact its because it saves money is disingenuous.

[@neutrino78x]

@@benpaynter "They weren't using battery powered trucks when I was in Oz" They will, soon. "they were using electric shovels and drag lines with cables linked to diesel generators as there was no grid electricity in those remote sites. " Yeah, and going forward it will be solar instead (eventually). "I stand by the point that the mining industry isn't doing this as part of a concerted move to being greener, they're doing it because it saves money, is efficient and that has the happy coincidence of being greener. " That's not much of a point. Basically you agree that it's beneficial. Plus the companies have policies to be greener.

[@carl8790]

@5:11 It's not like the diesel powerplant isn't capable of higher speeds, it can. They have their speed restricted to save on fuel costs. This is same strategy that commercial cargo ships do. Even modern commercial aircrafts that are capable of achieving high cruising speeds are restricted to .85 mach because, you guessed it, save on fuel costs.

[@choddo]

Fascinating piece. Those machines are just staggering.

[@54mgtf22]

Hi Imogen. Love your work 👍

[@EdouardTavinor]

As a cyclist I find it quite hard to be excited by episodes about new heavy SUVs. This episode I found really interesting :)

[@Lord.Kiltridge]

I would like to know more. For example, I see that the loaded trucks coming up from the pit are on the grid, but the ones going down aren't. If the ones going down were connected to the grid, wouldn't they be generating power? The weight of elevators and gondolas going up is partly offset by the ones going down. Can't the trucks do something similar? Just wondering out loud.

[@carlanderson5933]

Your correct the trucks currently have huge resistor grids that turn the energy created from slowing the trucks down hill into hot air out the side of the machine. Komatsu have developed the technology to utilise the down hill grid supply it's up to the customer to use it. Need to remember though the trucks going down the hill are 380tons lighter than the trucks going up the hill

[@themiltonguy4530]

YAY love you guys! Thanks for all the content

[@Ice_Karma]

So, er, what's the little Diesel engine in one of the mostly-electric haulers _for?_

[@rickybryan1759]

She’s so great. Love her such a good story

[@Knackebrot]

Everytime I see pantographs, it's awesome! I hope they get lorries on highways electrified like this too!

[@theairstig9164]

Already done

[@alanhat5252]

going back to the 1930s?

[@Knackebrot]

@@alanhat5252 There's nothing backwards about pulling power from wires.

[@macaron3141592653]

This is such a breath of fresh air. The biggest challenge to a green revolution is electrifying heavy industry which we need to build green infrastructure in the first place. Finding ways to electrify remote sites like this will be a big win.

[@jimthain8777]

Solar, wind, and probably geothermal too, are great ways to power remote places like these mines.

[@matneu27]

It would be perfect if Canada is also stopping the fracking to produce gas. They destroy and poison huge areas for ever.

[@manuelsevigny6855]

LOL I have to look a European show to learn about the country where I live! Great one!

[@tbird-z1r]

This isn't a European show.

[@manuelsevigny6855]

@@tbird-z1r no?

[@Yanquetino]

What I would like to see is an effort to re-landscape the areas of the mine where the copper deposits have run dry. Let's not just leave gaping scars and holes after we've extracted those minerals.

[@durwoodmaccool890]

That's often a part of the licensing agreement. Not that it's always acted on, companies will a lot of times use creative bankrupties to avoid site restoration, at least in the coal world, metals might be a slightly different game.

[@morosis82]

​@@durwoodmaccool890that's why it needs to be made part of the initial investment. Construct the mine and funds in investment that can be used by the gov to do reconstruction properly once the mine life is done.

[@bcm70]

Pretty much all the majors have decarb projects underway, with very aggressive net zero targets. Electrification of mobile equipment is just the start. Sourcing clean power is also a focus. Not many operations are lucky enough to have access to clean hydro like Copper Mountain, so many mines around the world have started building their own renewable power generation plants. There's a number with large solar arrays and batteries in Australia for example.

[@morosis82]

This to me is one of the greatest strengths of renewables, democratising energy to the point that it's feasible for a large infra project like a mine to do it itself and move the bar.

[@Mark..Birchenough]

Can't wait to see the pentograph for the huge ships transporting the minerals...

[@kinross24]

You should research the metals inc Cobolt that’s in surgical replacement parts, like knee, hip joints etc. Take all those parts/tonnage per year and find out what happens to those fitted and then renewed a few years later to see if the used ones are broken for individual minerals?

[@velotill]

I shudder at the delicate post mortem discussions with the loved ones of the deceased about a potential donation (to be fair they do that anyways when it comes to organ donations)

[@wonderonegaz]

A couple of problems here, where the right fuel really needs to be considered. And plant machinery really isn't the place to focus. Plant machinery is typically used in locations where there is no, and it would be difficult to provide grid connection to charge the vehicles, and any electricity on-site is generated by diesel generators anyway. So, in most cases, there is no saving of 32L/km of fuel, it's just shifted elsewhere. The only places where the cost or offset are where it's worth it, are in enclosed spaces, or gigantic mines like this with a grid connection.

[@zygmuntthecacaokakistocrat6589]

I recall an episode about the electric ferry in ?Sweden : I bet *that's* the biggest 'vehicle' you've ever filmed. "Wheeled vehicle": definitely. Or maybe that train in Queensland . . . "Rubber tyred vehicle" . . . ?

[@MrBravo143]

I want one of these for school run and shopping.

[@origin178]

Unfortunately, there's a grain of truth in what you say. Why do people drive 3 ton offroad trucks around town, when all they need is a 1.5 ton family car?

[@grahamkearnon6682]

Unfortunately for the Princeton, BC Copper mine the ore once treated gets moved by some filthy double trailer diesel trucks to Vancouver through a beautiful Park. So the company cares about hydro (power) costs not the environment or its inhabitants.

[@sydneyg007]

Truly awesome!

[@michaelrobson3460]

It's amazing to see how car share has developed into this all encompassing programme. It's like "World about us" for green energy geeks. So , from the land of Big Geordie. Obviously, the mining companies won't pay for the infrastructure, Canada did. Hopefully, the towns and cities enroute will benefit?

[@t1n4444]

Yes. They have this thing called taxation. Everything/everyone ends up pay tax at some stage. You could try Googling up stuff like "hidden taxation". Might give you a bit of context of how governments work to extract money from absolutely everything. And of course how governments are adept at moving the goal posts if they feel a bit skint. Google can help on that issue as well as.

[@darthgbc363]

I came up with a similar idea for semis on the interstate 3 decades ago. Use the grid to use drive & charge the onboard batteries that are used while delivering away from the interstate.

[@theairstig9164]

Tom Scott KZbin channel 26 October 2021

[@Kni0002]

Was thinking they put an insane amount of batteries on these trucks which is worse then diesel imo, but this is way better. They drive up the same road all the time so it makes sense to have a trolly truck!

[@PedroRafael]

Nice to know about these solutions. I do prefer the one that has batteries and charges on the way down, and then uses that charge on the way up. Don't know if the difference compensates the extra cost of the batteries VS the extra cost of having electricity being provided by hidro plus the cost of building the infrastructure (cables, posts, etc) from the hidro generation to the mine... but I applaud the effort, it does make a difference when it comes to fuel consumption! Thank you for sharing!

[@velotill]

prolly far to little regen compared to hauling all these tonnes uphill. I have heard of some mining operation where the extracted stuff need to be brought downhill anyways thereby enabling such a zero input electric truck operation.

[@TheWalnut47]

It made me laugh when I realised that the trucks pick up power from overhead cables. Why? As a youngster in south London, I used to regularly travel on trolleybuses up until the early 1960s - when they were withdrawn from service. These trucks are not a far cry from those trolleybuses of a bygone era - just a matter of scale! 21st innovation, or a return to an earlier technology? 🙂

[@greenridge7945]

Fantastic episode - gives me hope!

[@davidf2281]

So presumably the 'diesel' trucks in this video are actually electric drive, so the full-electric conversion is relatively straightforward?

[@the_lost_navigator7266]

Yes. Most heavy haul trucks are diesel electric, like trains. The engine runs a generator to power the motors.

[@danielrose1392]

The "electric" trucks are diesel electric Kumatsu 830E-5 with a trolley assist upgrade, they still carry their complete diesel electric drivetrain. Without the trolley assist upgrade it is a conventional diesel electric truck.

[@dennisenright9347]

I believe that most trucks this size are electric, meaning that each wheel has its own dedicated electric motor. The diesel is not burnt by a massive internal combustion engine sending power to the wheels via transmission and driveshafts, but by a massive onboard diesel-powered electric generator (Diesel trains operate this way). So replacing that with overhead wires for a truck that will spend its working life constantly driving back and forth on the same few kilometers of road makes a great deal of sense. The parent company of this mine also operates in Manitoba, and both provinces have two things that make this appealing. The first is fridged winters, because at -40C diesel motor operation can be problematic. The second is shown at 6.04 of the video. Hydropower, constantly available close by in massive quantities. It is the only viable renewable for this job. Intermittent ones simply will not work. If you saw these trucks operating somewhere without hydroelectricity, then the power is probably being produced by some type of fossil fuel plant.

[@dennisenright9347]

The reason that the Trans-Siberian railway was electric and lines in the US were not was that the Soviets were not terribly concerned with the environmental impact of damming every river they crossed to power it

[@mrrolandlawrence]

what a fantastic love letter to mining. great news that hundreds of mega scale mines are going to be opened in the coming years.

[@HorizonimagingCoUkPhotography]

Another fantastic episode, confidently and coherently delivered by Imogen, great job! 👏🏻🤩 I’d personally love to see an episode that I can send to EV naysayers to prove why they are greener - using metrics that they can understand … you know the type of people I mean, the type that at the merest mention of EVs default to saying ‘you EV drivers think you’re saving the planet, but what about the batteries, the raw materials have to come from somewhere, EVs just push pollution to power stations, the grid won’t cope if everyone drove EVs, EVs aren’t green, etc’ … all absolute bunkum which they spew whilst conveniently ignoring the impact of every climate-wrecking process of extracting, transporting and burning fossil fuels that goes into powering their ‘more green’ ICE car! It would need to compare the lifetime emissions of an EV with a similar ICE car, including the carbon impact of the materials used to build it, as well as generate / extract the fuel / energy that powers it … I know its a huge ask … Robert did an episode like this a while back but I seem to recall several areas of manufacturing / transportation weren’t covered, and would have left loopholes for … such people to moan about. Keep up the great work Imogen and the FC team! 😎👍🏻

[@robenglish416]

Electric cars are here to save the car industry, not us! When you describe the enormous amount of minerals needed I despair. Transportation ourselves on public transport and bikes is a must!

[@Simon-dm8zv]

Sure, public transport, cycling and walking are the best ways to reduce CO2 emissions. But we still need a lot of electric vehicles, no matter what.

[@paulsmyers203]

I do find it odd they use trucks instead of conveyor belts to move that material. But I'm sure they've done the math and the trucks are more economical. The scars that are left on Earth from mining are pretty sad to see. I wonder if that one could be used for pumped storage when they've finished the mining efforts.

[@nc3826]

The diggers are constantly moving their location. So only utilizing a conveyor belt would not be logistically possible. Plus as you pointed out the capital cost would be horrendously high.

[@Pottery4Life]

Thank you.

[@zapfanzapfan]

Saw the same concept in a mine in Sweden. Maybe the same model of truck. Also run on hydro power.

[@nmkzf]

what r u'r results of re- naturalizing the finished mining area

[@AdamWrigley]

Why is there that remaining usage of diesel? Is it necessary for the functioning of the vehicles?

[@jameslewis2635]

In theory the biggest obstacles to electrification are making the power source (such as a battery pack) compact enough to be practical while holding enough charge to last for long enough to cover a practical shift time-frame. Electric motor technology is mature enough to drive nearly any vehicle you care to point at so more often than not the real world issues tend to be a mixture of financial, social and making the battery packs small/light enough while retaining enough capacity for the machine involved to do its job over a required period of time.

[@nc3826]

biggest obstacles to electrification, is going to be recycling all those used batteries.... This process eliminates that issue..... And BC uses hydro, so storage isn't an issue there.... Everything is relative....

[@crackedemerald4930]

Does it pass the jack test

[@bhatkrishnakishor]

We need charge as you go infra for long distance cargo trucks and public transport. Patch of road with over head cables that can be tapped into by vehicles on the move and they charge up the batteries as there cover the distance.

[@Nikoo033]

Decarbonisation is great, and the tech used here makes absolutely sense. But the impact of mining overall (not just for minerals for our electronics and EVs that account for only 0.04% of all mining world-wide) is really painful to see 😢 and there are similar destructions of hill happening in the Peak District and other lovely areas of the UK 😢

[@realvanman1]

That's cool! Very old technology, but more often than not, what's old is new again. With the extra load on the hydro-electric system, where does the extra power come from? Is it made up with fossil fuels? Is there less exported to the south, where it must be made up for with fossil fuels? Until we have a surplus of renewable electricity, adding extra load only transfers the CO2 emissions from the local tailpipe to the distant one. Sort of cart before the horse, if you will. What we SHOULD be focusing on is decarbonizing the electrical supply even to meet the CURRENT demand. THEN work on electrification and simultaneously work on further increasing electrical supply capacity.

[@zapfanzapfan]

Related to mining, can you make a show on sustainably produced explosives? If any are being produced...

[@Leopold5100]

wow, excellent

[@petersilva037]

@1:40 ... strange anti-ev mining talking points refutation reason #4. oil extraction is mining too, and the pollutions resulting from it is a function of mass of fuel being mined. An average North American car 20k km/yr 10l/100km -> *0.75 kg/l -> 1500 kg. which is about the weight of the entire car. so People complaining about mining are overlooking that oil is mining too, and it is more mining in terms of mass, every year, than what is done for the life of an EV. And the above numbers are conservative, because to get 1l of gasoline, you need a bit more than 2 of crude oil. And that's before you get into the cobalt and platinum used to build ice vehicles.

[@ChrisBigBad]

That broke my brain.

[@mbuurmei]

Great story. I wondered how on earth do they get all that diesel over there? Truck or ship? That part is reduced significantly as well by going electric. In my home town we have trolley buses for ages and they are now electrifying the small bit from the workshop to the overhead lines that they bridged with a small ice engine that was carried all day for just that tiny bit

[@rfldss89]

Did i hear that right? 23 tonnes for a single wheel??!

[@JohnR31415]

Yep

[@pin65371]

The really big haul trucks weigh 1.2 million lbs while fully loaded.

[@rfldss89]

​@@JohnR31415but the wheel's about as big as big pick up truck, how can it be that heavy? I'm genuinely trying to wrap my around this, it seems unfathomable

[@SweBeach2023]

Trucks used in mining can weight 300-400 ton in total.

[@pin65371]

@@SweBeach2023 the 797 carries over 400 tonnes in its box. The total weight is over 600 tonnes. I work around these trucks. The one in the video is the small ones. It looks big until you see it next to the really big trucks.

[@alberts8075]

Surprisingly it wasn't mentioned that almost all huge machines like mining equipment are electric anyways. You can't f.e. built a gearbox for such a huge truck. As they are almost always "hybrids", there is a huge potential for reducing complexity as well.

[@AlexTheStampede]

That's not even a new idea, back in WWII that monstrosity that was going to be the Maus (almost 200 tons of tank) had a diesel engine... to power the electric drive train.

[@alanwolf9542]

The mines that haul loaded down from top of a mtn then charge uo the battrries to go enpty back up the mtn. A tain in Australia does this too. Yes 24 hr 7 days a wk. Lots big saving. Same with Robotic control. Its on a. Private rd too. The big trucks have the right away. $100 K cost of hightech itrms on a car big cost. On a big haul truck the 100K cost can be recovered in 1 yr labour saving. Battey cost pay back quickly too. Big power mines in Sk etc had Elect ( with cable yrs ago) Hey we had hybred vehicles too. Had to plug in over night to get engine started next morning at -40 C. Elect works better in winter too. Low humidity in winter cold diesel engines dont have good power. This is a problem with hey trucks too in the winter etc