## 1 Introduction
### Relevant Works  
Relevant works on this domain are the works that discuss about employing solar technologies in mine sites and the energy storage technology that they opt for. Deployment of solar energy in mining is relatively a new topic, contrary to residential and commercial sectors. The first MW-scale solar PV system in a mine site was installed in 2012 at Cronimet's South African chromium ore operation generating up to 1.8 GWh of energy per year [20]. A historical breakthrough of solar penetration in mining took place in 2013 after the installation of a 10-MW solar thermal plant in a Copper mine in the Atacama Desert. Owned by Minera El Tesoro, the plant replaced more than 55% of the diesel fuel consumed in the heating process for electro-extraction of copper [21]. Musselwhite mine in Canada, Chevron molybdenum mine in the USA, and few other mines in Chile are utilizing solar energy in mine sites. As a matter of fact, many of the world's remote mine activities are located between 35\({}^{\circ}\) latitude north and south where the sun is intense and reliable [22]. An ice storage technology run on solar PV can aid in reducing the cooling plant maximum capacity in a Canadian mine [23]. [PERSON] et al. [24] recommends four mine sites in the Northern Territory of Australia for Concentrating Solar Panel installation at the regional cluster level. [PERSON] demonstrated the potential of floating solar panels in a remote McFaults lake in Ontario to generate electricity of 400 MW that could provide electricity to 16 mines in this area [25]. A comprehensive literature review suggests that the solar technology is penetrating slowly but surely in the mining industry. However, most of the current and proposed applications include heating and electricity generation while only two publications are discovered for cooling [23,26]. Solar cooling has various technological options. Most widely investigated are solar electric and solar thermal. Before 2000, only solar thermal option was considered for chilling applications due to the high price of PV as compared to thermal collectors. However, the price in solar PV dropped by half from 2000 to 2010 and another halving took place from 2010 to 2015 [27]. The literature suggests that the Vapor Compression Refrigeration System (VCRS) based on solar electric has surpassed solar thermal schemes in 2013 [28, 29, 30]. Today, PV-driven solar cooling costs about half of the best thermally driven systems [27]. Different works of the literature are reported in solar electric cooling for diverse domestic applications [31, 32, 33]. However, applications in mining remain largely undiscovered. Solar electric cooling couples VCRS with solar PV. Solar PV installed for industrial applications like mining, requires large scale energy storage systems to resolve the intermittency problem. A battery storage system, which stores energy in a chemical medium, is the most widely used solar energy storage technology [34]. However, in recent years, a new realm in solar refrigeration is added after the battery bank is completely replaced or partially substituted with Ice Thermal Energy Storage (ITES) system. In this scheme, energy is stored in ice which later is adapted for chilling purposes. The ITES from solar PV has a great advantage as it can be used in reducing peak refrigeration demand resulting in peak shaving and capital cost savings. [PERSON] et al. [35] performed an experimental research on solar PVs operated as energy generators for ice thermal storage chillers for air-conditioning applications and concluded that a battery bank could completely be replaced by the ITES system. [PERSON] and [PERSON] [33] successfully presented an autonomous battery-less solar-powered ice maker. [PERSON] et al. [36] performed an analysis and simulation of solar PV-driven VCRS in a real weather condition without battery storage. National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) projects the energy storage cost in using Li-ion battery at a utility-scale solar PV is about 80% of the total cost of a PVinstallation [37].