Australia’s first commercial diesel displacement PV solar power station has commenced operation at a remote Rio Tinto mine in Australia.
The 1.7 megawatt Weipa Solar Plant will generate electricity for Rio Tinto’s Weipa bauxite mine, processing operations and township; which are located on Queensland’s Western Cape York Peninsula.
“We expect the energy from the solar plant will help reduce the diesel usage at Weipa’s power stations and save up to 600,000 litres of diesel each year,” said Rio Tinto’s general manager of Weipa Operations, Gareth Manderson.
” This will reduce Weipa’s greenhouse gas emissions by around 1,600 tonnes per year, equivalent to removing around 700 cars.”
The 18,000 solar panels at the facility are expected to produce around 2,800 megawatt hours of electricity annually.
This is just the first phase of the project. A second, larger phase is to be constructed if phase one is successful and will also feature an energy storage aspect.
The expanded 6.7MW facility would potentially save approximately 2,300,000 litres of diesel on average each year, reducing the greenhouse gas emission impact of Rio Tinto’s Weipa operations by around 6,100 tonnes per year.
The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) provided an initial $3.5 million for the first phase of the project and may contribute up to $7.8 million for the second phase.
“This is the first time a remote Australian mining operation has been supplied with power from solar PV on such a scale,” said ARENA CEO Ivor Frischknecht. ” The success of phase one is set to create a precedent for industry by demonstrating that solar PV is a viable option for powering off-grid locations, like mine sites, in Australia.”
According to Energy Matters, on average, Weipa receives solar irradiation levels of around 6.24 kilowatt hours per square metre daily.
Solar is becoming increasingly popular for mining operations locally and overseas as solar electricity is often cheaper than diesel-powered electricity.
Another major solar plant to service an Australian mine on the drawing board is a facility for Sandfire Resources NL. The company signed an agreement earlier this year to construct a 10.6MW solar farm at its DeGrussa Copper Mine in Western Australia. The PV plant will be one of the world’s largest off grid solar power systems.
Last month, Sirius Resources announced details of a solar/diesel power station for the Nova nickel mine in Fraser Range, Western Australia. The solar aspect of the Nova project will be 6.7MW capacity.
Also in August, Yellow Rock Resources said it had started planning a MW scale solar-diesel-vanadium battery hybrid power plant for its Gabanintha Vanadium Project near Meekatharra in Western Australia.
