Towards solar power supply for copper production in Chile: Assessment of global warming potential using a life-cycle approach

If the electricity that is currently taken from the grid is exclusively fed by solar technologies, the reduction on the GWP of copper production would be up to 63% and 76% for P-Cu and H-Cu processes. These numbers do not represent the upper bound for the reduction on the GWP of copper production that can be achieved with solar technologies because the substitution of on-site fossil fuel combustion with solar energy is another interesting mitigation option, which was not considered in this study. In order to achieve even less carbon-intensive production processes, an improved understanding of the copper's industry energy flows and profiles is needed. This would allow to assess the integration of further solar energy technologies and conceive the future of solar copper mining.