“Significant milestone:” Off-grid mine runs 155 consecutive hours on 100 pct renewables and engines off

The Bellevue gold mine in a remote part of Western Australia is claiming another major record after completing 155 consecutive hours running the facility on 100 per cent renewables, and with “engines off.”

The gold mine – with an average load of around 12.5 megawatts (MW) – – has achieved average renewable shares of well above the 80 per cent it targeted, often reaching into the 90 pct range on a monthly basis, and an average 93.8 per cent over February.

In early May, the facility ran for more than six and a half days running entirely on renewables – courtesy of its 27 MW of solar, 24 MW of wind, and the 15 MW, 33 MWh of battery that stores excess output and sends it back to the micro-grid when needed.

“This is a significant milestone, not only for the project, but for what is possible in the Australian energy sector and demonstrating nation-leading progress in renewable energy for remote mining operations,” Zenith Energy, which built the hybrid power station, wrote in a LinkedIn post.
 
“The system is designed to meet at least 80% of site energy needs from renewables, and moments like this show what that looks like in practice – especially with the right weather conditions.”

Bellevue Gold already claims to be the world’s first net zero emissions gold mine (scope 1 and scope 2), although it achieves some of this with offsets, and is yet to decarbonise its mining equipment and transport, as Fortescue is aiming to do by 2030 at its much bigger iron ore operations in the Pilbara, where the average load is 800 MW.

Still, the new record for “engines off” is believed to be a world first at such a facility relying on wind and solar as the major source of power, and beats the achievements of the much smaller King Island mini-grid off the coast of Tasmania, where the average load is around 2.5 MW.

A number of different off-grid mines are achieving very high level of renewables – usually much higher than predicted – with Lynas Gold achieving a record 95.7 per cent renewable share over the entire March quarter at its Mt Weld lithium mine.

Another lithium miner, the Kathleen Valley facility operated by Liontown Resources, has also achieved high share of renewables above 80 per cent on a consistent monthly basis, shielding it from the recent surge in diesel prices.

Both Lynas Gold and Liontown are backed by Gina Rinehart, Australia’s richest person, and one of its most ardent anti-renewable campaigners.

Bellevue said in April that it is on track to meet the upper end of the forecasted 80-90 per cent renewable energy for the current financial year.

“As well as reducing emissions, the high fraction of renewable energy has inherently decreased Bellevue Gold’s exposure to fluctuations in the diesel and LNG markets, and provides extra resilience to any potential supply chain shocks,” it said in its quarterly statement.

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