Concrete pour completed for wind turbines at Australia’s biggest off-grid renewables hub

Australia’s biggest off-grid renewable energy projects, being developed to power a gold mine site in a remote region of Western Australia, has marked a “pivotal moment,” with the concrete foundations for its seven wind turbines all now in place.

Global mining giant Gold Fields said on Thursday that seven concrete foundations have been poured at the project site, located 80km south of Kalgoorlie, in preparation for the arrival of the wind turbine components by September.

The seven wind turbines, totalling 42 megawatts (MW) of power generating capacity, are part of Gold Fields’ landmark $A296 million St Ives Renewables Project, which also includes a 35 MW solar farm.

Gold Fields says construction of the solar farm, being carried out by Pacific Energy, is also progressing well, with more than 50 per cent of the solar panel frames built and the first of 66,000 panels arriving on site ahead of installation later this month.

The hybrid renewables system is expected to power more than 70% of Gold Fields’ St Ives gold mine, once operational, becoming WA’s largest renewable energy initiative at an existing mine site. Construction is expected to be completed next year.

Gold Fields operates nine mines and projects across Australia, Canada, Chile, Ghana, South Africa, and Peru and has set itself a target of reducing its Scope 1 and 2 carbon emissions by 30 per cent by 2030 from a 2016 baseline.

By 2030, Gold Fields aims to secure around 70 per cent of its electricity from renewable energy sources, and 100 per cent by 2050.

“The recent milestones achieved at the St Ives Renewable Energy project has further solidified the reality of what Gold Fields is achieving with our industry partners,” the miner’s principal specialist and project director Simon Schmid said on Thursday.

“When it’s up and running, the St Ives Renewable Energy project will be a visible representation of our commitment to making Gold Fields’ operations more sustainable.

“We believe this project is industry-leading when it comes to renewable energy use in the mining sector, and we are thrilled to see the progress that has been made as we track towards this goal.”