Rio Tinto plans new solar, battery project for its newest Weipa bauxite mine

Rio Tinto is building a new 12.4 MW solar farm and 8.8 MW/2.1 MWh battery at its Amrun bauxite mine, a project that will complement but be completely separate to the two Weipa renewable energy farms nearby.

The Amrun solar farm brings the total renewables capacity around Weipa to 17.6 MW of solar and 6.1 MWh of battery storage.

The new project, located on the Wik and Wik-Waya traditional lands, is a 45 minute drive and a ferry-ride across The Hay river from the existing two renewables farms and Rio Tinto’s two older bauxite mines, Weipa near the town ship and Andoom further north.

The original EDL-owned 1.6 MW Weipa Solar Farm was finished in 2015 and is one of the earliest solar farms in Australia. Anew farm commissioned by Rio Tinto in 2021 of 4 MW of solar and a 4 MW/4 MWh battery is also owned and operated by EDL.

The newest site will be built, owned and operated by EU-based Aggreko, which also operates the existing diesel power station for the Amrun mine, itself commissioned in 2018 and the newest of Rio Tinto’s operations around Weipa.

It’s expected to reduce Amrun’s diesel electricity consumption by 37 per cent and annual CO2-equivalent emissions by 14,000 tonnes, and generate about 21 gigawatt hours annually.

“The Amrun solar farm will be one of three Weipa Operations solar stations, which will together provide 18MW of solar generation capacity to our mines and the Weipa town. This project helps us make inroads towards our ambitions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from our operations,” says Rio Tinto Weipa operations general manager Shona Markham.

Early works have begun and the new solar farm is expected to be operational by early 2025.

The original 1.6 MW solar farm was funded with a $3.7 million grant from ARENA in 2014 and commissioned two years later. It was built by First Solar and sold to EDL in 2015.

First Solar sold its Australian business to US-based NovaSource Power Services last year.

A 6.7 MW stage two and another $7.8 million from the government funder was supposed to follow on from that, but EDL and ARENA called time on that part of the project in 2019.

But Rio Tinto still needed to decarbonise its diesel-heavy operations and deputised EDL to build the smaller solar and battery operation in 2021, which was supposed to reduce fuel consumption by 7 million litres a year.