Mining giant Rio Tinto has reached an agreement with renewable energy technology company Heliogen to explore the deployment of their breakthrough solar technology at Rio Tinto’s borates mine in Boron, California.
The agreement will see Heliogen deploy its proprietary, AI-powered technology at the Boron operation, where it will use heat from the sun to generate and store carbon-free energy to power the mine’s industrial processes.
The Boron operation, which mines and refines borates into products ranging from fertilisers to construction materials, is currently powered by a natural gas cogeneration plant and natural gas fired boilers.
“Heliogen’s installation will supplement these energy sources by generating up to 35,000 pounds per hour of steam to power operations, with the potential to reduce carbon emissions at the Boron site by around 7 per cent – equivalent to taking more than 5,000 cars off the road,” Rio Tinto said in a statement.
“Rio Tinto will also be assessing the potential for larger scale use of the Heliogen technology at Boron to reduce the site’s carbon footprint by up to 24 per cent.”
The two companies will begin detailed planning and securing government permits for the project, with the aim of starting operations from 2022.
According to Rio’s statement, they will also use the Boron installation to begin exploring the potential for deployments of Heliogen’s technology at its other operations around the world to supply process heat, which accounted for 14 per cent of Scope 1 & 2 emissions from the Group’s managed operations in 2020.
Heliogen CEO and Founder Bill Gross said the company’s high-temperature solar technology is designed to cost-effectively replace fossil fuels with sunlight for a range of industrial processes, including those used in mining.
“Since its founding, Heliogen has been laser-focused on decarbonising industrial sectors, including mining,” Mr Gross said.
“As a result, this agreement with Rio Tinto is incredibly gratifying. We’re pleased to find a partner committed to cutting its contributions to climate change.
“We’re also pleased that Rio Tinto is exploring our technology to play an important role in helping reach its sustainability goals while dramatically reducing its energy costs.”
Rio Tinto Chief Executive Jakob Stausholm said the partnership with Heliogen has the potential to significantly reduce the company’s emissions at Boron and across its global portfolio.
“Addressing climate change effectively will require businesses, governments and society to work together through partnerships like this one, to explore innovative new solutions throughout the entire value chain,” he continued.
“Our work with Heliogen is part of Rio Tinto’s commitment to spend approximately $1 billion on emissions reduction initiatives through to 2025 and our commitment to work with world-leading technology providers to achieve this goal.”
